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WALKS IN ROME 



WALKS IN ROME 




/ 



/-' 






By AUGUSTUS J^a'^HARfeJ ' ^^A 



v\ (D 



Second American Edition. 





r" 



GEORGE ROU*T LEDGE & SONS 

NEW YORK : 416 BROOME STREET 

1872. 



84 iEEKMAN STREET, 






ROBERTRUTTER, '. Edwaki. O. Jiwkim, 

BINDER, *.'" PR r.VTFR A iVD STEREOTYPES. 



•JO Noith William Street. N. Y. 



TO 

HIS DEAR MOTHER 

TMB CONSTANT COMPANION OF MANY ROMAN WINTBR9 

C^tse pages are ^tbicateb 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



V--- 






CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

PAGE 
THE ARRIVAL IN ROME . ix 

CHAPTER I. 

DULL-USEFUL INFORMATION • . I 

CHAPTER II. 

THE CORSO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD . . . . ; 7 

CHAPTER III. 

THE CAPITOLINE 6o 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE FORUMS AND THE COLISEUM 97 

CHAPTER V. 

THE VELABRUM AND THE GHETTO I4? 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE PALATINE 182 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE CCELIAN 212 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE AVENTINE 2^^b 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGB 
THE VIA APPIA 253 

CHAPTER X. 

THE QUIRINAL AND VIMINAL 299 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD Of IHE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN . . 329 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE ESQUILINE 358 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE BASILICAS OF THE LATERAN, SANTA CROCE, AND S. LO- 
RENZO 394 

CHAPTER XIV. 

IN THE CAMPUS MARTIUS 435 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE BORGO AND ST. PETER's 492 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE VATICAN 536 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE ISLAND AND THE TRASTEVERE 597 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE TRE FONTANE AND S. PAOLO 62 1 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE VILLAS BORGHESE, MADAMA, AND MELLINI . . . 634 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE JANICULAN 65O 



INTRODUCTORY. 
THE ARRIVAL IN ROME. 

** A GAIN this date of Rome ; the most solemn and 

-^^ interesting that my hand can ever write, and even 
now more interesting than when I saw it last," wrote Dr. 
Arnold to his wife in 1840- — and how many thousands 
before and since have experienced the same feeling, who 
have looked forward to a visit to Rome as one of the great 
events of their lives, as the realization of the dreams and 
longings of many years. 

An arrival in Rome is very different to that in any other 
town of Europe. It is coming to a place new and yet most 
familiar, strange and yet so well known. When travellers 
arrive at Verona, for instance, or at Aries, they generally 
go to the amphitheatres with a curiosity to know what they 
are like ; but when they arrive at Rome and go to the 
Coliseum, it is to visit an object whose appearance has 
been familiar to them from childhood, and, long ere it 
is reached, from the heights of the distant Capitol, they 
can recognize the well-known form; — and as regards St. 
Peter's, who is not familiar with the aspect of the dome, of 
the wide-spreading piazza, and the foaming fountains, for 
long years before they come to gaze upon the reality ? 

*' My presentiment of the emotions with which I should 
behold the Roman ruins, has proved quite correct," wrote 
Niebuhr. " Nothing about them is new to me ; as a child 
I lay so often, for hours together, before their pictures, 
that their images were, even at that early age, as dis- 
tinctly impressed upon my mind, as if I had actually seen 
them." 

Yet, in spite of the presence of old friends and landmarks, 
travellers who pay a hurried visit to Rome, are bewildered 



X WALKS TN ROME. 

by the vast mass of interest before them, by the endless 
labyrinth of minor objects, which they desire, or, still oftener, 
feel it a duty, to visit. Their Murray, their Baedeker, and 
their Bradshaw indicate appalling lists of churches, temples, 
and villas which ought to be seen, but do not distribute them 
in a manner which will render their inspection more easy. 
The promised pleasure seems rapidly to change into an end- 
less vista of labour to be fulfilled and of fatigue to be gone 
through ; henceforward the hours spent at Rome are rather 
hours of endurance than of pleasure — his cicerone drags 
the traveller in one direction, — his antiquarian friend, his 
artistic acquaintance, would fain drag him in others, — he is 
confused by accumulated misty glimmerings from historical 
facts once learnt at school, but long since forgotten, — of 
artistic information, which he feels that he ought to have 
gleaned from years of society, but which, from want of use, 
has never made any depth of impression, — by shadowy ideas 
as to the story of this king and that emperor, of this pope 
and that saint, which, from insufficient time, and the ab- 
sence of books of reference, he has no opportunity of 
clearing up. It is therefore in the hope of aiding some of 
these bewildered ones, and of rendering their walks in 
Rome more easy and more interesting, that the following 
chapters are written. They aim at nothing original, and 
are only a gathering up of the information of others, and 
a gleaning from what has been already given to the world 
in a far better and fuller, but less portable form ; while, in 
their plan, they attempt to guide the traveller in his daily 
wanderings through the city and its suburbs. 

It must not, however, be supposed, that one short re- 
sidence at Rome will be sufficient to make a foreigner 
acquainted with all its varied treasures \ or even, in most 
cases, that its attractions will become apparent to the 
passing stranger. The squalid appearance of its modern 
streets, the filth of its beggars, the inconveniences of its 
daily life, will leave an impression which will go far to 
neutralize the effect of its ancient buildings, and the 
grandeur of its historic recollections. It is only by return- 
ing again and again, by allowing i\\tfee/wg of Rome to gain 
upon you, when you have constantly revisited the same 
view, the same temple, the same picture, that Rome en- 
graves itself upon your heart, and changes from a dis- 



INTRODUCTORY. xi 

agreeable, unwholesome acquaintance, into a dear and 
intimate friend, seldom long absent from your thoughts. 
" Whoever," said Chateaubriand, " has nothing else left in 
life, should come to live in Rome ; there he will find for 
society a land which will nourish his reflections, walks which 
will always tell him something new. The stone which 
crumbles under his feet will speak to- him, and even the 
dust which, the wind raises under his footsteps will seem to 
bear with it something of human grandeur." 

" When we have once known Rome," wrote Hawthorne, 
" and left her where she lies, like a long-decaying corpse, 
retaining a trace of the noble shape it was, but with accu- 
mulated dust and a fungous growth overspreading all its 
more admirable features — left her in utter weariness, no 
doubt, of her narrow, crooked, intricate streets, so uncom- 
fortably paved with little squares of lava that to tread over 
them is a penitential pilgrimage ; so indescribably ugly, 
moreover, so cold, so alley-like, into which the sun never 
falls, and where a chill wind forces its deadly breath into 
our lungs — left her, tired of the sight of those immense 
seven-storied, yellow-washed hovels, or call them palaces, 
where all that is dreary in domestic life seems magnified 
and multiplied, and weary of climbing those staircases which 
ascend from a ground-floor of cook-shops, cobblers'-stalls, 
stables, and regiments of cavalry, to a middle region of 
princes, cardinals, and ambassadors, and an upper tier of 
artists, just beneath the unattainable sky, — left her, worn 
out with shivering at the cheerless and smoky fireside by 
day, and feasting with our own substance the ravenous 
population of a Roman bed at night, left her sick at heart 
of Italian trickery, which has uprooted whatever faith in 
man's integrity had endured till now, and sick at stomach 
of sour bread, sour wine, rancid butter, and bad cookery, 
needlessly bestowed on evil meats, — left her, disgusted 
with the pretence of holiness and the reality of nasti- 
ness, each equally, omnipresent, — left her, half lifeless 
from the languid atmosphere, the vital principle of which 
has been used up long ago or corrupted by myriads of 
slaughters, — left her, crushed down in spirit by the desola- 
tion of her ruin, and the hopelessness of her future, — left 
her, in short, hating her with all oyr might, and adding our 
individual curse to the infinite anathema which her old 



»i WALKS IN ROME. 

crimes have unmistakeably brought down : — when we have 
left Rome in such mood as this, we are astonished by the 
discovery, by-and-by, that our heartstrings have mysteriously 
attached themselves to the Eternal City, and ar^ drawing 
us thitherward again, as if it were more familiar, more in- 
timately our home, than even the spot where we were 
born." 

This is the attractive and sympathetic power of Rome 
which Byron so fully appreciated — 

" Oh Rome my country ! city of the soul ! 
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee, 
Lone mother of dead empires ! and controul 
In their shut breasts their petty misery. 
What are our woes and sufferance ? Come and see 
The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way 
O'er steps of broken thrones and temples. Ye ! 
Whose agonies are evils of a day — 

A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay. 

** The Niobe of nations ! there she stands 

Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe ; 

An empty urn within her withered hands, 

Whose sacred dust was scattered long ago ; 

The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now ; 

The very sepulchres lie tenantless 

Of their heroic dwellers : dost thou flow, 

Old Tiber ! through a marble wilderness ? 
Rise, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress ! " 

The impressiveness of an arrival at the Eternal City was 
formerly enhanced by the solemn singularity of the country 
through which it was slowly approached. " Those who arrive 
at Rome now by the railway," says Mrs. Craven in her ' Anne 
Severin,' '' and rush like a whirlwind into a station, which 
has nothing in its first aspect to distinguish it from that of 
one of the most obscure places in the world, cannot imagine 
the effect which the words ' Ecco Roma ' formerly produced, 
when on arriving at the point in the road from which the 
Eternal City could be descried for the first time, the pos- 
tillion stopped his horses, and pointing it out to the tra- 
veller in the distance, pronounced them with that Roman 
accent which is grave and sonorous, as the name of Rome 
itself" 

" How pleasing," says Cardinal Wiseman, " was the usual 
indication to early travellers, by voice and outstretched 
whip, embodied in the well-known exclamation of every 



INTRODUCTOR \ '. xiii 

vetturino, 'Ecco Roma.' To one 'lasso maris et viarum/ 
like Horace, these words brought the first promise of ap- 
proaching rest. A few more miles of weary hills, every one 
of which, from its summit, gave a more swelling and majestic 
outline to what so far constituted ' Roma,' that is, the great 
cupola, not of the church, but of the city, its only discernible 
part, cutting, hke a huge peak, into the clear winter sky, 
and the long journey was ended, and ended by the full 
realization of well-cherished hopes." 

Most travellers, perhaps, in the old days came by sea 
from Marseilles and arrived from Civita Vecchia, by the 
dreary road which leads through Palo, and near the base 
of the hills upon which stands Cervetri, the ancient Caere, 
from the junction of whose name and customs the word 
" ceremony " has arisen, — so especially useful in the great 
neighbouring city. " This road from Civita Vecchia," writes 
Miss Edwards, the talented authoress of ' Barbara's His- 
tory,' "lies among shapeless hillocks, shaggy with bush 
and briar. Far away on one side gleams a line of soft 
blue sea — on the other lie mountains as blue, but not more 
distant. Not a sound stirs the stagnant air. Not a tree, 
not a housetop, breaks the wide monotony. The dust lies 
beneath the wheels like a carpet, and follows like a cloud. 
The grass is yellow, the weeds are parched ; and where 
there have been wayside pools, the ground is cracked and 
dry. Now we pass a crumbling fragment of something 
that may have been a tomb or temple, centuries ago. Now 
we come upon a little wide-eyed peasant boy, keeping goats 
among the ruins, like Giotto of old. Presently a buffalo 
lifts his black mane above the neighbouring hillock, and 
rushes away before we can do more than point to the spot 
on which we saw it. Thus the day attains its noon, and 
the sun hangs overhead like a brazen shield, brilliant, but 
cold. Thus, too, we reach the brow of a long and steep 
.ascent, where our driver pulls up to rest his weary beasts. 
The sea has now faded almost out of sight ; the mountains 
look larger and nearer, with streaks of snow upon their 
summits, the Campagna reaches on and on and shows no 
sign of limit or of verdure, — while, in the midst of the clear 
air, half way, so it would seem, between you and the purple 
Sabine range, rises one solemn solitary dome. Can it be 
the dome of St. Peter's ? " 



4iv WALKS IN ROME. 

The great feature of the Civita Vecchia route was that 
after all the utter desolation and dreariness of many miles 
of the least interesting part of the Campagna, the traveller 
was almost stunned by the transition, when on suddenly 
passing the Porta Cavalleggieri, he found himself in the 
Piazza of St. Peter's, with its wide-spreading colonnades, 
•end high-springing fountains ; indeed the first building he 
saw was St. Peter's, the first house that of the Pope, the 
palace of the Vatican. But the more gradual approach by 
land from Viterbo and Tuscany possessed equal if not 
superior interest. 

" When we turned the summit above Viterbo," wrote Dr. 
Arnold, "and opened on the view on the other side, it 
might be called the first approach to Rome. At the 
distance of more than forty miles, it was of course impos- 
sible to see the town, and besides the distance was hazy ; 
but we were looking on the scene of the Roman history ; 
we were standing on the outward edge of the frame of the 
great picture, and though the features of it were not to be 
traced distinctly, yet we had the consciousness that they 
were before us. Here, too, we first saw the Mediterra- 
nean, the Alban hills, I think, in the remote distance, and 
just beneath us, on the left, Soracte, an outlier of the Apen- 
nines, which has got to the right bank of the Tiber, and 
stands out by itself most magnificently. Close under us 
in front, was the Ciminian lake, the crater of an extinct 
volcano, surrounded as they all are, with their basin of 
wooded hills, and lying like a beautiful mirror stretched 
out before us. Then there was the grand beauty of Italian 
scenery, the depth of the valleys, the endless variety of 
the mountain outline, and the towns perched upon the 
mountain summits, and this now seen under a mottled sky, 
which threw an ever-varying light and shadow over the 
valley beneath, and all the freshness of the young spring. 
We descended along one of the rims of this lake to Roncig- 
lione, and from thence, still descending on the whole, to 
Monterosi. Here the .famous Campagna begins, and it 
certainly is one of the most striking tracts of country I ever 
beheld. It is by no means a perfect flat, except between 
Rome and the sea; but rather like the Bagshot Heath 
country, ridges of hills with intermediate valleys, and the 
road often running between high steep banks, and sometimes 



INTRODUCTORY, "xv 

crossing sluggish streams sunk in a deep oea. All these 
banks are overgrown with broom, now in full flower ; and 
the same plant was luxuriant everywhere. There seemed 
no apparent reason why the country should be so desolate ; 
the grass was growing richly everywhere. There was no 
marsh anywhere visible, but all looked as fresh and healthy 
as any of our chalk downs in England. But it is a wid^ 
wilderness ; no villages, scarcely any houses, and here and 
there a lonely ruin of a single square tower, which I sup- 
pose used to serve as strongholds for men and cattle in 
the plundering warfare in the middle ages. It was after 
crowning the top of one of these lines of hills, a little on 
the Roman side of Baccano, at five minutes after six, 
according to my watch, that we had the first view of Rome 
itself. I expected to see St. Peter's rising above the line of 
the horizon, as York Minster does, but insteiid of that, it 
was within the horizon, and so was much less conspicuous, 
and from the nature of the ground, it looked mean and 
stumpy. Nothing else marked the site of the city, but the 
trees of the gardens and a number of white villas specking 
the opposite bank of the Tiber for some little distance 
above the town, and then suddenly ceasing. But the whole 
scene that burst upon our view, when taken in all its parts, 
was most interesting. Full in firont rose the Alban hills, 
the white villas on their sides distinctly visible, even at that 
distance, which was more than thirty miles. On the left 
were the Apennines, and Tivoli was distinctly to be seen 
on the summit of its mountain, on one of the lowest and 
nearest parts of the chain. On the right and all before us 
lay the Campagna, whose perfectly level outline was suc- 
ceeded by that of the sea, which was scarcely more so. It 
began now to get dark, and as there is hardly any twilight, 
it was dark soon after we left La Storta, the last post before 
you enter Rome. The air blew fresh and cool, and we had 
a pleasant drive over the remaining part of the Campagna, 
till we descended into the valley of the Tiber, and crossed 
it by the Milvian bridge. About two miles further on we 
reached the walls of Rome, and entered it by the Porta del 
Popolo.'' 

Niebuhr coming the same way says : — " It was with 
solemn feelings that this morning from the barren heights of 
the moory Campagna, I first caught sight of tlie cupola of 



xvi WALKS IN ROME. 

St. Peter's, and then of the city from the biidge, where all 
the majesty of her buildings and her history seems to lie 
spread out before the eye of the stranger ; and after\vards 
entered by the Porta del Popolo." 

Madame de Stael gives us the impression which the 
same subject would produce on a different type of 
character : — 

" Le comte d'Erfeuil faisait de comiques lamentations sur 
les environs de Rome. Quoi, disait-il, point de maison de 
campagne, point de voiture, rien qui annonce le voisinage 
d'une grande ville ! Ah ! bon Dieu, quelle tristesse ! En 
approchant de Rome, les postilions s'^crierent avec trans- 
port : Voyez, voyez, c'est la coiipole de Sainf-Fierre ! Les 
Napohtains montrent aussi le Vesuve; et la mer fait de 
meme I'orgueil des habitans des cotes. On croirait voir 
le dome des Invalides, s'ecria le comte d'Erfeuil." 

It was by this approach that most of its distinguished 
pilgrims have entered the capital of the Catholic world : 
monks, who came hither to obtain the foundation of their 
Orders ; saints, who thirsted to worship at the shrines of 
their predecessors, or who came to receive the crown of 
martyrdom ; priests and bishops from distant lands, — many 
coming in turn to receive here the highest dignity which 
Christendom could offer ; kings and emperors, to ask coron- 
ation at the hands of the reigning pontiff; and among all 
these, came by this road, in the full fervour of Catholic 
enthusiasm, Martin Luther, the future enemy of Rome, then 
its devoted adherent. "When Luther came to Rome," 
says Ampere, in his ' Portraits de Rome a Divers Ages/ 
"the future reformer was a young monk, obscure and 
fers^ent ; he had no presentiment, when he set foot in the 
great Babylon, that ten years later he would burn the bull 
of the Pope in the public square of Wittenberg. His heart 
experienced nothing but pious emotions ; he addressed to 
Rome in salutation the ancient hymn of the pilgrims ; he 
cried, 'I salute thee, O holy Rome, Rome venerable 
through the blood and the tombs of the martyrs.' But after 
having prostrated on the threshold, he raised himself, h© 
entered into the temple, he did not find the God he looked 
for ; the city of the saints and martyrs was a city of mur- 
derers and prostitutes. The arts which marked this corrup- 
tion were powerless over the stolid senses, and scandalised 



INTROD UCTOK V. xvii 

the austere spirit of the German monk ; he scarcely gave a 
passing glance at the ruins of pagan Rome ; — and inwardly 
horrified by all that he saw, he quitted Rome in a frame of 
mind very different from that which he brought with him ; 
he knelt then with the devotion of the pilgrims, now he 
returned in a disposition like that of the frondeiirs of the 
Middle Ages, but more serious than theirs. This Rome of 
which he had been the dupe, and concerning which he was 
disabused, should hear of him again ; the day would come 
when, amid the merry toasts at his table, he would cry three 
times, ' I would not have missed going to Rome for a thou- 
sand florins, for I should always have been uneasy lest I 
should have been rendering injustice to the Pope.' " 

When one is in Rome life seems to be free from many 
of the petty troubles which beset it in other places ; there 
is no foreign town which offers so many comforts and ad- 
vantages to its English visitors. The hotels, indeed, are 
enormously expensive, and the rent of apartments is high ; 
but when the latter is once paid, living is rather cheap 
than otherwise, especially for those who do not object to 
dine from a trattoria, and to drive in hackney carriages. 

The climate of Rome is very variable. If the sirocco 
blows, it is mild and very relaxing ; but the winters are more 
apt to be subject to the severe cold of the tra7nonta7ia, 
which requires even greater precaution and care than that 
of an English winter. Nothing can be more mistaken than 
the impression that those who go to Italy are sure to find 
there a mild and congenial temperature. The climate of 
Rome has been subject to severity, even from the earliest 
times of its history. Dionysius speaks of one year in the 
time of the republic when the snow at Rome lay seven feet 
deep, and many men and catde died of the cold.'* Another 
year, the snow lay for forty days, trees perished, and cattle 
died of hunger, t Present times are a great improvement 
on these : snow seldom lies upon the ground for many hours 
together, and the beautiful fountains of the city are only 
hung with icicles long enough to allow the photographers to 
represent them thus ; but still the climate is not to be trifled 
with, and violent transitions from the hot sunshine to the 
cold shade of the streets often prove fatal. '' No one but 

* Dionysius, xii. 8, t Livy, v. 13. 



xviii WALKS IN ROME. 

dogs and Englishmen," say the Romans, " ever walk in 
the sun." 

The malaria^ which is so much dreaded by the natives, 
lies dormant during the winter months, and seldom affects 
strangers, unless they are inordinately imprudent in sitting 
out in the sunset. With the heats of the late summer this 
insidious ague-fever is apt to follow on the slightest exertion, 
and particularly to overwhelm those who are employed in 
field labour. From June to November the Villa Borghese 
and the Villa Doria are uninhabitable, and the more de- 
serted hills — the Coelian, the Aventine, and the greater part 
, of the Esquiline, — are a constant prey to fever. The malaria, 
however, flies before a crowd of human life, and the Ghetto, 
which is overwhelmed with teeming inhabitants, is perfectly 
free from it. In the Campagna, — with the exception of 
Porto d'Anzio, which has always been healthy, — no town or 
village is safe after the month of August, and to this cause 
the utter desolation of so many formerly populous sites 
(especially those of Veii and Galera) may be attributed : — 

*' Roma, vorax hominum, domat ardua colla virorum ; 
Roma, ferax febrium, necis est uberrima frugura : 
Romanae febres stabili sunt jure fideles." 

Thus wrote Peter Damian in the loth century, and those 
who refuse to be on their guard will find it so still. 

The greatest risk at Rome is incurred by those who, 
coming out of the hot sunshine, spend long hours in the 
Vatican and the other galleries, which are filled with a 
deadly chill during the winter months. As March comes on 
this chill wears away, and in April and May the temperature 
of the galleries is delightful, and it is impossible to find a 
more agreeable retreat. It is in the hope of inducing 
strangers to spend more time in the study of these wonder- 
ful museums, and of giving additional interest to the hours 
which are passed there, that so much is said about their 
contents in these volumes. As far as possible it has been 
desired to evade any mere catalogue of their collections, — 
so that no mention has been made of objects which possess 
inferior artistic or historical interest ; while by introducing 
anecdotes connected with those to which attention is drawn, 
or by quoting the opinion of some good authority concern- 
ing them, an endeavour has been made to fix them in the 
recollection. 



INTRODUCTORY. xix 

So much has been written about Rome, that in quoting 
from the remarks of others the great difficulty has been 
selection, — and the rule has been followed that the most 
learned books are not always the most instructive or the 
most interesting. No endeavour has been made to enter 
into deep archaeological questions, — to define the exact 
limits of the Walls of Servius Tullius, — or to hazard a fresh 
opinion as to how the earth accumulated in the Roman 
Forum, or whence the pottery came, out of which the Monte 
Testaccio has arisen ; but it has rather been sought to 
gather up and present to the reader such a succession of 
word pictures from various authors, as may not only make 
the scenes of Rome more interesting at the time, but may 
deepen their impression afterwards. This was the work 
which the late illustrious M. Ampere intended to carry out, 
and which he would have done so much better and more 
fully. 

From the experience of many years the writer can truly 
say that the more intimately these scenes become known, 
the more deeply they become engraven upon the inmost 
affections. It is not a hurried visit to the Coliseum, with 
guide book and cicerone, which will enable one to drink in 
the fulness of its beauty ; but a long and familiar friendship 
with its solemn walls, in the ever-varying grandeur of golden 
sunlight and grey shadow — till, after many days' compa- 
nionship, its stones become dear as those of no other 
building ever can be ; — and it is not a rapid inspection of 
the huge cheerless basilicas and churches, with their gaudy 
marbles and gilded ceilings and ill-suited monuments, 
which arouses your sympathy ; but the long investigation of 
their precious fragments of ancient cloister, and sculptured 
fountain, —of mouldering fresco and mediaeval tomb, — of 
mosaic-crowned gateway, and palm-shadowed garden ; — and 
the gradually-acquired knowledge of the wondrous story 
which clings around each of these ancient things, and which 
tells how each has a motive and meaning entirely un- 
suspected and unseen by the passing eye. 

The immense extent of Rome, and the wide distances to 
be traversed between its different ruins and churches, is in 
itself a sufficient reason for devoting more time to it than to 
the other cities of Italy. Surprise will doubtless be felt 
that so few pagan ruins remain, considering the enormous 



XX WALKS IN ROME. 

number which are known to have existed even down to a 
comparatively late period. A monumental record of a.d. 
540, published by Cardinal Mai, mentions 324 streets, 2 
Capitols — the Tarpeian and that on the Quirinal — 80 gilt 
statues of the gods (only the Hercules remains), 66 ivory 
statues of the gods, 46,608 houses, 17,097 palaces, 13,052 
fountains, 3785 statues of emperors and generals in bronze, 
22 great equestrian statues of bronze (only Marcus Aurelius 
remains), 2 colossi (Marcus Aurelius and Trajan), 9026 
baths, 3 1 theatres, and 8 amphitheatres ! 

It is impossible to speak too highly of the facilities 
afforded to strangers for seeing and enjoying everything, 
especially by the Roman nobility. The beautiful grounds 
of the Villa Borghese and the Villa Doria appear to be kept 
up at an enormous expense, solely for the use and pleasure 
of the public, and almost all the palaces and collections are 
thrown open on fixed days with unequalled liberality. In 
almost all these galleries, museums, and gardens the 
stranger is permitted to wander about and linger as he 
pleases, entirely unmolested by officious servants and ignor- 
ant ciceroni. 

Those will enjoy Rome most who have studied it tho- 
roughly before leaving their own homes. In the multiplicity 
of engagements in which a foreigner is soon involved, there 
is little time for historical research, and few are able to do 
moje than " read up their Murray," so that half the pleasure 
and all the advantage of a visit to Rome are thrown away : 
while those who arrive with the foundation already pre- 
pared, easily and naturally acquire, amid the scenes around 
which the liistory of the world revolved, an amount of in- 
formation which will be astonishing even to themselves. 

The pagan monuments of Rome have been written of 
and discussed ever since they were built, and the catacombs 
have lately found historians and guides both able and will- 
ing, — about the later Christian monuments far less has 
hitherto been said. In English, except in the immense 
collection of interest which is imbedded in the works of 
Hemans, and in the few beautiful notices of some of the 
early martyrs by Mrs. Jameson, very little has been written : 
in French there is far more. There is a natural shrinking 
in the English Protestant mind from all that is connected 
with the story of the saints, — especially the later saints oi 



INTROD UC TOR V. xxl 

the Roman Catholic Church. Many beUeve, with Addison, 
" that the Christian antiquities are so embroiled in fable and 
legend, that one derives but little satisfaction from searching 
into them." And yet, as Mrs. Jameson observes, when all 
that the controversialist can desire is taken away from 
the reminiscences of those, who to the Roman Catholic mind 
have consecrated the homes of their earthly life, how much 
remains ! — " so much to awaken, to elevate, to touch the 
heart ; — so much that will not fade from the memory, so 
much that may make a part of our after-life." 

^o attempt has been made in these pages to describe the 
country round Rome, beyond a few of the most ordinary 
drives and excursions outside the walls. The opening of the 
railways to Naples and Civita Vecchia have now brought a 
vast variety of new excursions within the range of a day's 
expedition — and the papal citadel of Anagni, the temples of 
Cori, the cyclopean remains of Segni, Alatri, Norba, Cervetri, 
and Cornetro, and the wild heights of Soracte, will probably 
ere long become as well known as the oft-visited Tivoli, 
Ostia, and Albano. It is hoped at a future time to supple- 
ment these " Walks in Rome " by a similar volume of 
" Excursions round Rome." 






CHAPTER I. 

DULL-USEFUL INFORMATION. 

Hotels. — For passing travellers or bachelors, the best are : Hotel 
d'Angleterre, Bocca di Leone ; Hotel New York, Bocca di Leone ; 
Hotel de Rome, Corso. For families, or for a long residence : Hotel 
des lies Britanniques, Piazza del Popolo ; Hotel de Russie (close to 
the last). Via Babuino ; Hotel de Londres, and Hotel Europa, Piazza 
di Spagna ; Hotel Costanzi, Via S. Nicolo in Tolentino, in a high airy- 
situation towards the railway-station, and very comfortable and well 
managed, but further from the sights of Rome. Less expensive, are : 
Hotel d'Allemagne, Via Condotti ; Hotel Vittoria, Via Due Macelli ; 
Hotel Minerva, Piazza della Minerva, very near the Pantheon ; Hotel 
del Globo, Via S. Nicolo in Tolentino. 

Pensions are much wanted in Rome. The best are those of Miss 
Smith and Madame Tellenbach, in the Piazza di Spagna, and the small 
Hotel de I'LInivers, in the Capo le Case. 

Apartments have lately greatly increased in price. An apartment 
for a very small family in one of the best situations can seldom be 
obtained for less than from 450 to 500 francs a month. The English 
almost all prefer to reside in the neighbourhood of the Piazza di Spagna. 
The best situations are the sunny side of the Piazza itself, the Trinita de' 
Monti, the Via Gregoriana, and Via Sistina. Less good situations are, 
the Corso, Via Condotti, Via Due Macelli, Via Frattina, Capo le Case, 
Via Felice, Via Quattro Fontane, Via Babuino, and Via delle Croce, — 
in which last, however, are many very good apartments. On the other 
side of the Corso suites of rooms are much less expensive, but they are 
less convenient for persons \^'ho make a short residence in Rome. In 
many of the palaces are large apartments which are let by the year. 
B Tratforie (Restaurants) send out dinners to families in apartments 
m a tin box with a stove, for which the bearer calls the next morning. 
A dinner for six francs ought to be amply sufficient for three persons, 
and to leave enough for luncheon the next day. 

Eitglish Church. — ^Just outside the Porta del Popolo, on the left. 
Services at 9 AM., 1 1 A.M., and 3 P.M. on Sundays; daily service 
twice on week-days. The American Church is in the same building, 
with an entrance further on. 

Post Office. — In the Palazzo-Madama, near S. Luigi. The English 
mail leaves daily at 8 p.m. 



2 WALKS IN ROME 

Telegraph Office. — 121 Piazza Monte-Citorio. A telegraph of 20 
words to England, including name and address, costs 1 1 francs. 

Bankers. — Hooker, 20 Piazza di Spagna ; Macbean, 378 Corso ; 
Plowden, 234 Ccrso ; Spada and Flamini, 20 Via Condotti. 

For sending Boxes to England. — Welby, 8 Monte-Citorio. 

English Doctors. — Dr. Grigor, Hotel d'Angleterre ; Dr. Small, 56 
Via Babuino ; Dr. Gason, 12 Via del Mercede. German : Dr. Taussig, 
144 Via Babuino. Ametican : Dr. Gould, 107 Via Babuino. Italian : 
Dr. Valeri, 138 Via Babuino. 

Homeopathic Doctor. — Dr. Liberali, 69 Via della Frezza. 

Dentist. — Dr. Parmby, 93 Piazza di Spagna. 

Sick-mirses. — Mrs. Meyer, 44 Via delle Carozze ; Madame Annette 
Meyer, Via S. Isidoro — the Nuns of the Bon-Secours at the convent in 
the Via dei Banchi. 

Chemists. — Sininberghi, 134 Via Frattina, and Borioni, Via Babuino, 
are those usually employed by the English ; but the chemists' shops in 
the Corso are as good, and much less expensive. 

English House Agent. — Shea, ii Piazza di Spagna. 

English Livery Stables. — ^James, 7 Via Lamina ; Jarrett, 3 Piazza del 
Popolo. 

Library. — Piale, Piazza di Spagna. 

Booksellers. — Monaldini, Piazza di Spagna ; Spithover, Piazza di 
Spagna ; Merle, Piazza Colonna. 

Italian Masters. — Vannini, 31 Via Condotti (in the summer at the 
Bagni di Lucca) ; Monachesi, 8 Via S. Sebastiancllo ; Gordini, 374 
Corso. 

Fhotographei-s. — For views of Rome. — Watson, Via Babuino ; Mac- 
pherson, 12 Vicolo Aliberti ; Mang, 104 Via Felice ; Anderson (his 
photographs sold at Spithover's). For Artistic Bits, very much to be 
recommended, De Bonis, 28 Via S. Isidoro. For Fortraits. — Suscipi, 
48 Via Condotti (the best for medallions) ; Alessandri, 12 Corso (excel- 
lent for Cartes de Visitc) ; Lais, 57 Via del Campo-Marzo ; Ferretti, 
50 Via Sta. Maria in Via. 

Dratving Materials. — Dovizelli, 136 Via Babuino ; Corteselli, 150 
Via Felice. For commoner articles and stationery, the " Cartoleria," 
214 Corso, opposite the Piazza Colonna. 

Engraznngs. — At the Stamperia Camerale (fixed prices), 6 Via dell^^ 
Stamperia, near the fountain of Trevi. ^fe^ 

Antiquities. — Marchesi, 60 Via Condotti ; Depoletti, 31 Via Fonta- 
nella Borghese ; Lmocenti, 118 Via Frattina; Santelli, 14I Via Frat- 
tina; Capobianchi, 152 Via Babuino. 

Bronzes. — Rohrich, 104 Via Sistina ; Chiapanelli, 92 Via Babuino; 
Dressier, 17 Via Due Macelli. 

Cameos. — Saulini, 96 Via Babuino ; Neri, 72 Via Babuino. 

Mosaics. — Rinaldi, 125 Via Babuino ; Boschetti, 74 Via Condotti. 

Jewellers. ~Qz.^it\\d,x{\, 88 Via Poli (closed from 12 to i), very beau- 



ARTISTS' STUDIOS. 3 

tiful, but very expensive ; Pierref, 20 Piazza di Spagna ; Ini.ocenti, 33 
Piazza Trinila de' Monti. 

Roman Pearls. — Rey, 122 Via Babuino ; Lacchini, 70 Via Condolti. 

Bookbinder. — Olivieri, I Via Frattina. 

Engraver. — (For visiting cards, &c.), Martelli, 139 Via Frattina. 

Tailors. Mattina (the "Poole" of Rome), Corso, opposite S. 
Carlo, entrance 2 Via delle Carozze ; Vai, 60 Piazza di Spagna ; Re- 
anda, 61 Piazza S. Apostoli. 

Shoemakers. — ^Jesi, 129 Corso (none good). 

Di-essmaker. — Clarisse, 166 Corso. 

Shops for Ladies' Dress. — Massoni, 155 Corso; the Ville de Lyon, 
48 Via dei Prefetti (behind S. Lorenzo in Lucina) ; Sebastiani, 8 Via 
del Campo-Marzo ; Giovannetti, 50 to 53 Campo-Marzo. 

Roman Ribbons a7id Shawls. — Arvotti, 66 Piazza Madama (fixed 
prices). 

Gloves. — Cremonesi, 420 Corso ; 4 Piazza S. Lorenzo in Lucina. 

Carpets and small Household Articles. — Cagiati, 250 Corso. 

German Baker. — Colalucci, 88 Via della Croce (excellent). 

English Grocer. — Lowe, 76 Piazza di Spagna. 

Italian Grocer and Wine Merchant. — Giacosa, Via della Maddalena. 

Oil, Candles and Wood, ^c. — Luigioni, 70 Piazza di Spagna. 

English Dairy. — Palmegiani, 66 Piazza di Spagna. 

A rusts' Stndios. — 

Benonville, 61 Via Babuino, — landscapes. 

Miss Blunden, 46 Via St. Basilio, — water-colour landscapes. 

Brennan, 76 Via Borghetto. 

Canevari, no Piazza Borghese, — first-rate for chalk portraits. 

Coleman, 16 Via dei Zucchelli, — very good for animals. 

Corrodi, 25 Angelo-Custode, — water-colour landscapes, very highly 
finished. 

Desoulavy, 33 Via Margutta, — landscapes. 

Fattorini, Via Margutta, — a very beautiful copyist. 

Flatz, 3 Mario di Fiori, — sacred subjects. 

Haseltine, J. H., 59 Via Babuino. 
^Moris, -^-^ Via Margutta, — quite first-rate for figure subjects in water- 
■rcolour. 
^Glennie, Via Margana, — water-colour, first-rate. 

Knebel, 33 Via Margutta, — oil landscapes. 

Maes, 33 Via Margutta. 

*Mananecci, 53 Via Margutta, — the prince of copyists. 

Muller, 60 Piazza Barberini, — water-colour landscapes. 

Podesti, 55 Via Margutta, — oil : large historical and sacred subjects. 

Poingdestre, 36 Vicolo del Greci — oil : landscapes. 

Buchanan Read, 55 Via Margutta. 

♦Riviere, 36 Vicolo dei Greci,— water-colour. 



4 WALKS IN ROME. 

De Sanctis. 33 Via Margutta. 

Strivtt (Arthur), 81 Via della Croce, — landscapes and figures, both oil 

and water-colour. 
Verturtni, 53 Via Margutta, — water-colour. 
Wedder, 55 A Via Margutta. 
*Penry Williams, 12 Piazza Mignanelli, — water-colour. 

Sculptors' Studios. — 
Benzoni, 73 Vicolo del Borghetto. 
D'Epinay, 57 Via Sistina. 
Miss Foley, 53 Via Margutta, — admirable for medallion portraits and 

busts. 
*Miss Hosmer, 118 Via Margutta — (Gibson's studio). 
Miss Lewis, 8 Via S. Nicolo in Tolentino. 
Macdonald, 7 Piazza Barberini. 
Rosetti, 55 Via Margutta. 
Miss Stebbins, 8 Piazza Barberini. 
Story, 2 Via S. Nicolo in Tolentino. 
Tadolini, 150A Via Babuino. 

Wood (Shakspeare), 504 Corso, — excels in medallion portraits. 
Wood (Warrington), 7 Piazza Trinita de' Monti. 



It is impossible for a traveller who spends only a week or 
ten days in Rome to see a tenth part of the sights which it 
contains. Perhaps the most important objects are : 

Churches. — S. Peter's, S. John Lateran, Sta. Maria Maggiore, S. 
Lorenzo fuori Mura, S. Paoli fuori Mura, S. Agnese fuori Mura, Ara 
Coeli, S. Clemente, S. Pietro in Montorio, S. Pietro in Vincoli, Sta. 
Sabina, Sta. Prassede and Sta. Pudentiana, S. Gregorio, S. Stefano 
Rotondo, Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, Sta. Maria del Popolo. 

Palaces. — Vatican, Capitol, Borghese* Barberini (and, if possible, 
Corsini, Colonna, Sciarra, Rospigliosi, and Spada). 

Villas. — Albani, Doria, Borghese, Wolkonski, and, though less 
important, Ludovisi. 

Ruins. — Palace of the Caesars, Temples in Forum, Coliseum, and, if 
possible, the ruins in the Ghetto, and the Baths of Caracalla. 

It is desirable for the traveller who is pressed for ti; 
to apply at once to his Banker for orders for any of t 
villas for which they are necessary. The following scheme 
will give a good general idea of Rome and its neighbourhood 
in a few days. The sights printed in italics can only be seen 
on the days to which they are ascribed : — 

Monday. — General view of Capitol, Gallery of Sculpture, Ara Coeli. 
General view of Forum, Coliseum, St. John I>ateran (with cloisters), 
and drive out to the Via Latina and the aqueducts at Tavolato. 



SUBJECTS FOR ARTISTS. 5 

Tuesday. — Morning : St. Peter's and the Vatican Stanze. Afternoon : 
l^illa Albani, St. Agnese, and drive to the Ponte Nomentana. 

Wednesday. — Go to Tivoli (the Cascades, Cascatelle, and Villa 
d'Este). 

Thursday. — Morning : Palace of tk". Cissars. Afternoon : drive on the 
Via Appia as far as Torre Mezzo Strada ; in returning, see the Baths 
of Caracalla. 

Friday. — Morning : Palazzo Borghese, Palazzo Spada, The Ghetto, 
The Temple of Vesta, cross the Ponte Rotto to Sta. Cecilia ; and end 
in the afternoon at St. Pietro in Montorio and the Villa Doria (or on 
Monday). 

Saturday. — Frascati and Albano. Drive to Frascati eai'ly, take 
donkeys, by Rocca di Papa to Mte. Cavo ; take luncheon at the Temple, 
and return by Palazzuolo and the upper and lower Galleries to Albano, 
whither the carriage should be sent on to await you at the Hotel de 
Russie. Drive back to Rome in the evening. 

Sunday. — Morning : Sta. Maria del Popolo on way to English Church. 
Afternoon : St. Peter s again ; drive to Monte Mario (Villa Mellini), or 
in the Villa Borghese, and end with the Pincio. 

2d Monday. — Morning: Sta. Prassede, Sta. Pudentiana, Sta. Maria 
Maggiore. Afternoon : Sta. Sabina, Priorato Garden, English Ceme- 
tery, S. Paolo, and the Tre Fontane. 

2d Tuesday. — Morning : Vatican Sculptures. Afternoon : S. 
Gregorio, S. Stefano Rotondo, S. Clemente, S. Pietro in Vincoli, 
Sta. Maria degli Angeli, S. Lorenzo fuori Mura, and drive out to the 
Torre dei Schiavi, returning by the Porta Maggiore. 

2d Wednesday. — Morning: Palazzo Barberini, Palazzo Rospigliosi^ 
(and on Saturdays) Vatican Pictures. Afternoon : Forum in detail, 
S. Cosmo and Damian, and ascend the Coliseum. 



The following list may be useful as a guide to some of the 
best subjects for artists who wish to draw at Rome, and 
have not much time to search for themselves : — 

Morning Light : 

Temple of Vesta with the fountain. 

Aixh of Constantine from the Coliseum (early). 
^ Coliseum from behind Sta. Francesca Romana (early). 

P Temples in the Forum from the School of Xanthus. 

View from the Garden of the Rupe Tarpeia. 

In the Garden of S. Giovanni e Paolo. 

In the Garden of S. Buonaventura. 

In the Garden of the S. Bartolomeo in Isola. 

In the Garden of S. Onofrio. 

On the Tiber from Poussin's Walk. 

From the door of the Villa Medici. 

At S. Cosimato. 

Ar the b?,ck entrance of Ara Coeli. 



6 WALKS IN ROME. 

At the Portico of Octavia. 

Looking to the Arch of Titus up the Via Sacra. 

In the Cloister of the Lateran. 

In the Cloister of the Certosa. 

Near the Temple of Bacchus. 

On the Via Appia, beyond Cecilia IMetella. 

Torre Mezza Strada on the Via Appia. 

Torre Nomentana, looking to the mountains. 

Ponte Nomentana, looking to the Mons Sacer. 

Torre dei Schiavi, looking towards Tivoli. 

Aqueducts at Tavolato. 

Evening Light : 

From St. John Lateran. 

From the Ponte Rotto. 

From the Terrace of the Villa Doria (St. Peter's). 

Palace of the Caesars — Roman side — looking to Sta. Balbina. 

Palace of the Caesars — French side — looking to the Coliseum. 

Apse of S. Giovanni e Paolo. 

Near the Navicella. 

Garden of the Villa Mattei. 

Garden of the Villa Wolkonski. 

Garden of the Priorato. 

Porta S. Lorenzo. 

Torre dei Schiavi, looking towards Rome. 

Via Latina, looking towards the Aqueducts. 

Via Latina, looking towards Rome. 

The months of November and December are the best for 
drawing. The colouring is then magnificent ; it is enhanced 
by the tints of the decaying vegetation, and the shadows are 
strong and clear. January is generally cold for sitting out, 
and February wet ; and before the end of March the vegeta- 
tion is often so far advanced that the Alban Hills, which 
have retained glorious sapphire and amethyst tints all winter, 
change into commonplace green English downs ; while the 
Campagna, from the crimson and gold of its dying thistles 
and fenochii, becomes a lovely green plain waving with 
flowers. 

Foreigners are much too apt to follow the native ctistom 
of driving constantly in the Villa Borghese, the Villa Doria, 
and on the Pincio, and getting out to walk there during 
their drives. For those who do not care always to see the 
human world, a delightful variety of drives can be found ; 
and it is a most agreeable plan for invalids, without carriages 
of their own, to take a '' course to the Parco di San Gre- 
gorio," or to the sunny avenues near the Lateran, and 



PIAZZA DEL POPOLO. 7 

walk there instead of on the Pincio. A carriage for the 
return may almost always be found in the Forum or at the 
Lateran. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CORSO AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

The Piazza del Popolo — Obelisk — Sta, Maria del Popolo — (The Pincio 
— Villa Medici — Trinila de' Monti) (Via Babuino — Via Margutta — 
Piazza di Spagna — Propaganda) (Via Ripetta — SS. Rocco e Martino 
— S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni) — S. Giacomo degli Incurabili — Via 
Vittoria — Mausoleum of Augustus — S. Carlo in Corso — Via Con- 
dotti — Palazzo Borghese — Palazzo Ruspoli — S. Lorenzo in Lucina 
— S. Sylvestro in Capite — S. Andrea delle Fratte — Palazzo Chigi — 
Piazza Colonna — Palace and Obelisk of Monte-Citorio — Temple of 
Neptune — Fountain of Trevi — Palazzo Poll — Palazzo Sciarra — The 
Caravita— S. Ignazio — S. Marcello — Sta. Maria in Via Lata — Pa- 
lazzo Doria Pamfili — Palazzo Salviati — Palazzo Odescalchi — Pa- 
lazzoColonna — Church ofSS. Apostoli — Palazzo Savorelli — Palazzo 
Buonaparte — Palazzo di Venezia — Palazzo Torlonia— Ripresa dei 
Barberi — S. Marco — Church of II Gesu — Palazzo Altieri. 

THE first object of every traveller will naturally be to 
reach the Capitol, and look down thence upon ancient 
Rome ; but as he will go down to the Corso to do this, and 
must daily pass most of its surrounding buildings, we will 
first speak of those objects which will, ere long, become the 
most familiar. 

A stranger's first lesson in Roman geography should be 
learnt standing in the Piazza del Popolo, whence three streets 
branch off — the Corso, in the centre, leading towards the 
Capitol, beyond which lies ancient Rome ; the Babuino, on 
the left, leading to the Piazza di Spagna and the English 
quarter ; the Ripetta, on the right, leading to the Castle of 
St. Angelo and St. Peter's. The scene is one well known 
from pictures and engravings. The space between the 
streets is occupied by twin churches, erected by Cardinal 
Gastaldi. 

"Les deux eglises elevees au Place du Peuple par le Cardinal Gas- 
taldi a I'entree du Corso, sont d'un efifct mediocre. Comment un cardi- 
nal n'a-t-il pas senti qu'il ne faut pas elever une eglise \iOwx faire pen- 
dant kqi\G.\(\\.\e c\\os,Q'i C'est ravaler la majeste divine." Ste)idhal,\. 172, 



8 WALKS IN ROME. 

It is in the church on the left that sermons are preached 
every winter on Sunday afternoons by some of the best 
Roman Cathohc controversiahsts, just at the right moment 
for catching the Protestant congregations as they emerge 
from their chapels outside the Porta del Popolo. 

These churches are believed to occupy the site of the 
magnificent tomb of Sylla, who died at Puteoli B.C. 82, but 
was honoured at Rome with a public funeral, at which the 
patrician ladies burnt masses of incense and perfumes on 
his funeral pyre. 

The Obelisk of the Piazza del Popolo was placed on this 
site by Sixtus V. in 1589, but was originally brought to 
Rome and erected in honour of Apollo by the Emperor 
Augustus. 

"Apollo was the patron of the spot which had given a name to the 
great victory of Actium ; Apollo hiniself, it was proclaimed, had fought 
for Rome and for Octavius on that auspicious day ; the same Apollo, the 
Sun-god, had shuddered in his bright career at the murder of the Dic- 
tator, and terrified the nations by the eclipse of his divine countenance." 

. . . Therefore, "besides building a temple to Apollo on the 
Palatine hill, the Emperor Augustus sought to honour him by trans- 
planting to the Circus Maximus, the sports of which were under his 
special protection, an obelisk from Heliopolis, in Egypt. This flame- 
shaped column was a symbol of the sun, and originally bore a blazing 
orb upon its summit. It is interesting to trace an intelligible motive for 
the first introduction into Europe of these grotesque and unsightly 
monuments of eastern superstition." — Merivale, Hist, of the Romaiis. 

" This red granite obelisk, oldest of things, even in Rome, rises in 
the centre of the piazza, with a four-fold fountain at its base. All 
Roman works and ruins (whether of the empire, the far-off republic, or 
the still more distant kings) assume a transient, visionary, and impalpable 
character, when we think that this indestructible monument supplied one 
of the recollections Avhich Moses and the Israelites bore from Egypt into 
the desert. Perchance, on beholding the cloudy pillar and fiery column, 
they whispered awe-stricken to one another, ' In its shape it is like that 
old obelisk which we and our fathers have so often seen on the borders 
of the Nile.' And now that very obelisk, with hardly a trace of decay 
upon it, is the first thing that the modern traveller sees after eiitering 
the Flaminian Gate." — Haiuthorne' s Transfoi-mation. 

It was on the left of the Piazza, at the foot of what was 
even then called " the Hill of Gardens," that Nero was 
buried (a.d. 68). 

"When Nero was dead, his nurse Eclaga, with Alexandra, and Acte 
the farrious concubine, having wrapped his remains in rich white stuff, 
embroidered with gold, deposited them in the Domitian monument, 
which is seen in the Campus-Martius under the Hill of Gardens. The 



STA. MARIA DEL POPOLO. g 

tomb was of porphyry, having an altar of Luna marble, surrounded by 
a balustrade of Thasos marble." — Suetonius. 

Church tradition tells that from the tomb of Nero after- 
wards grew a gigantic walnut-tree, which became the resort 
of innumerable crows, — so numerous as to become quite a 
pest to the neighbourhood. In the eleventh century, Pope 
Paschal II. dreamt that these crows were demons, and that 
the Blessed Virgin commanded him to cut down and burn 
the tree ("albero malnato"), and build a sanctuary to her 
honour in its place. A church was then built by means of 
a collection amongst the common people ; hence the name 
which it still retains of '' St. Mary of the People." 

Sta. Maria del Fopolo was rebuilt by Bacio Pintelli for 
Sixtus IV. in 1480, and very richly adorned. It was mo- 
dernized by Bernini for Alexander VI I. (Fabio Chigi, 
1655-67), of whom it was the family burial-place, but it 
still retains many fragments of beautiful fifteenth century 
work (the principal door of the nave is a fine example of 
this) ; and its interior is a perfect museum of sculpture and 
art. 

Entering the church by the west door, and following the 
right aisle, the first chapel (Venuti, formerly Delia Rovere*) 
is adorned with exquisite paintings by Pinttiricchio. Over 
the altar is the Nativity (one of the most beautiful frescoes 
in the city) ; in the lunettes are scenes from the life of St. 
Jerome. Cardinal Christoforo della Rovere, who built 
this chapel and dedicated it to " the Virgin and St. Jerome," 
is buried on the left, in a grand fifteenth century tomb ; on 
the right is the monument of Cardinal di Castro. Both of 
these tombs and many others in this church have interesting 
and greatly varied lunettes of the Virgin and Child. 

The second chapel, of the Cibo family, rich in pillars of 
nero-antico and jasper, has an altarpiece representing the 
Assumption of the Virgin, by Carlo Maratta. In the cupola 
is fhe Almighty, surrounded by the heavenly host.f 

The third chapel is also painted by Pinttiricchio. Over 
the altar, the Madonna and four saints ; above, God the 
Father, surrounded by angels. In the other lunettes, scenes 
in the life of the Virgin ; — that of the Virgin studying in the 

* Observe. — Here and elsewhere the arms of the Della Rovere — an oak-tree. Ro- 
bur, an oak,— hence Rovere. 

t The beautiful 15th century altar of four virgin saints at S. Cosimato in Trastevere, 
is said to have been brought from this chapel. 



lo WALKS IN ROME. 

Temple, a very rare subject, is especially beautiful. In a 
frieze round the lower part of the wall, a series of martyr- 
doms in grisaille. On the right is the tomb of Giovanni 
della Rovere, ob. 1483. On the left is a fine slqeping bronze 
figure of a bishop, unknown. 

The fourth chapel has a fine fifteenth century altar-relief 
of St. Catherine between St. Anthony of Padua and St. 
Vincent. On the right is the tomb of Marc-Antonio 
Albertoni, ob. 1485 ; on the left, that of Cardinal Costa, of 
Lisbon, ob. 1508, erected in his lifetime. In this tomb is 
an especially beautiful lunette of the Virgin adored by 
Angels. 

Entering the right transept, on the right is the tomb of 
Cardinal Podocanthorus of Cyprus, a very fine specimen of, 
fifteenth century work. A door near this leads into a 
cloister, where is preserved, over a door, the Gothic altar- 
piece of the church of Sixtus IV., representing the Corona- 
tion of the Virgin, and two fine tombs — Archbishop Rocca, 
ob. 1482, and Bishop Gomiel. 

The choir (shown when there is no service) has a ceiling 
by Pmtiiricc/iio. In the centre, the Virgin and Saviour, 
surrounded by the Evangelists and Sibyls ; in the corners, 
the Fathers of the Church — Gregory, Ambrose, Jerome, and 
Augustine. Beneath are the tomlDS of Cardinal Ascanio 
Sforza, and Cardinal Girolamo Basso, nephews of Sixtus 
IV. (Francesco della Rovere), beautiful works of Andrea di 
Saiisovino. These tombs were erected at the expense of 
Julius II., himself a Delia Rovere, who also gave the 
windows, painted by Claude and Guillaiune de Marseilles, 
the only good specimens of stained glass in Rome. 

The high-altar is surmounted by a miraculous image of the 
Virgin, inscribed, "In honorificentia popuU nostri," which was 
placed in this church by Gregory IX., and which, having 
been "successfully invoked" by Gregory XIII. , in the gjj^eat 
plague of 1578, has ever since been annually adored by the 
pope of the period, who prostrates himself before it upon 
the 8th of September. The chapel on the left of this has 
an Assumption, by A7inibale Caracci. 

In the left transept is the tomb of Cardinal Bernardino 
Lonati, with a fine fifteenth century relief of the Resurrec- 
tion. 

Returning by the left aisle, the last chapel but one is that 



STA, MARIA DEL POPOLO. Ii 

of the Cliigi family, in which the famous banker, Agostino 
Chigi (who built the Farnesina) is buried, and in which 
Raphael is represented at once as a painter, a sculptor, and 
an architect. He planned the chapel itself; he drew the 
strange design of the Mosaic on the ceiling (carried out by 
Aloisio della Face), which represents an extraordinary mix- 
ture of Paganism and Christianity, Mercury, Venus, Mars, 
Jupiter, and Saturn (as the planets), conducted by angels, 
being represented with and surrounding Jehovah ; and he 
modelled the beautiful statue of Jonah seated on the whale, 
which was sculptured in the marble by Lorenzetto. The 
same artist sculptured the figure of Elijah, — those of Daniel 
and Habakkuk being by Berjiini. The altarpiece, repre- 
senting the Nativity of the Virgin, is a fine work of Sebastian 
del Piombo. On the pier adjoining this chapel is the strange 
monument by Posi (1771) of a Princess Odescalchi Chigi, 
who died in childbirth, at the age of twenty, erected by her 
husband, who describes himself, " In sohtudine et luctu 
superstes." 

The last chapel contains two fine fifteenth century ciboria, 
and the tomb of Cardinal Antonio Pallavicini, 1507. 

On the left of the principal entrance is the remarkable 
monument of Gio. Batt. Gislenus, the companion and friend 
of Casimir I. of Poland (ob. 1670). At the top is his portrait 
while living, inscribed, " Neque hie vivus " ; then a medallion 
of a chrysalis, "In nidulo meo moriar"; opposite to which 
is a medallion of a butterfly emerging, " Ut Phoenix multi- 
plicabo dies " : below is a hideous skeleton of giallo antico 
in a white marble winding-sheet, " Neque hie mortuus." 

Martin Luther "often spoke of death as the Christian's true birth, 
and this life as but a growing into the chrysalis-shell in which the spirit 
lives till its being is developed, and it bursts the shell, casts off the web, 
struggles into life, spreads its wings, and soars up to God." 

The Augustine Convent adjoining this church was the 
residence of Luther while he was in Rome. Here he 
celebrated mass immediately on his arrival, after he had 
prostrated himself upon the earth, saying, " Hail sacred 
Rome ! thrice sacred for the blood of the martyrs shed 
here ! " Here, also, he celebrated mass for the last time 
before he departed from Rome to become the most terrible 
of her enemies. 

"Lui pauvre ecolier, eleve si durement, qr.i souvent, pendant son 

C 



12 WALKS IN ROME. 

enfance, n'avait pour oreiller qu'une dalle froide, il passe devant des 
.temples tout de marbre, devant des colonnes d'albatre, des gigantesques 
obelisques de granite, des fontaines jaillissantes, des villas fraiches et 
enibellies de jardins, de fleurs, de cascades et de grottes. Veut-il prier ? 
il entre dans une eglise qui lui semble un monde veritable, ou les dia- 
mants scintillent sur I'autel, Tor aux soffites, le marbre aux colonnes, la 
mosaique aux chapelles, au lieu d'un de ces temples rustiques qui n'ont 
dans sa patrie pour tout ornement que quelques roses qu'rne main 
pieuse va deposer sur I'autel le jour du dimanche. Est-il fatigue de la 
route ? il trouve sur son chemin, non plus un modeste banc de bois, 
mais un siege d'albatre antique recemment detei're. Cherche-t-il une 
sainte image ? il n'aper^oit que des fantaisies pai'ennes, des divinites 
olympiques, Apollon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, auxquelles travaillent 
mille mains de sculpteurs. De toutes ces merveilles, il ne comprit rien, 
il ne vit rien. Aucun rayon de la couronne de Raphael, de Michel- 
Ange, n'eblouit ses regards ; il resta froid et muet devant tous les 
tresors de peinture et de sculpture rassembles dans les eglises ; son 
oreille fut fermee aux chants du Dante, que le peuple repetait autour 
de lui. 11 etait entre a Rome en pelerin, il en sort comme Coriolan, et 
s'ecrie avec Bembo : ' Adieu, Rome, que doit fair auiconque veut vivre 
saintement ! Adieu, ville oil tout est permis, excepte d'etre homme de 
bien.' " — Aiidhi, Histoire de Luther^ c. ii. 

It was in front of this church that the cardinals and mag- 
nates of Rome met to receive the apostate Christina of 
Sweden upon her entrance into the city. 



On the left side of the piazza rise the terraces of the 
Pincio, adorned with rostral-columns, statues, and marble 
bas-reliefs, interspersed with cypresses and pines. A wind- 
ing road, lined with mimosas and other flowering shrubs, 
leads to the upper platform, now laid out in public drives 
and gardens, but, till twenty years ago, a deserted waste, 
where the ghost of Nero was believed to wander in the 
middle ages. 

Hence the Eternal City is seen spread at our feet, and 
beyond it the wide-spreading Campagna, till a silver line 
marks the sea melting into the horizon beyond Ostia. All 
these churches and tall palace roofs become more than mere 
names in the course of the winter, but at lirst all is bewilder- 
ment. Two great buildings alone arrest the attention : 

** Westward, beyond the Tiber, is the Castle of St. Angelo, the im- 
mense tomb of a pagan emperor with the archangel on its summit. . . 
Still further off, a mighty pile of buildings, surmounted by a vast dome, 
which all of us have shaped and swelled outward, like a huge bul)ble, 
to the utmost scope of our imaginations, long before we see it floating 
over the worship of the city. At any nearer view the grandeur oi 



THE PINCIO. 13 

St. Peter's hides itself behind the immensity of its separate parts, so 
that we only see the front, only the sides, only the pilhircd length and 
loftiness of the portico, and not the mighty whole. But at this distance the 
entire outline of the world's cathedral, as well as that of the palace of the 
world's chief priest, is taken in at once. In such remoteness, moreover, 
the imagination is not debarred from rendering its assistance, even 
while we have the reality before our eyes, and helping the weakness of 
human sense to do justice to so grand an object. It requires both faith 
and fancy to enable us to feel, what is nevertheless so true, that yonder, 
in front of the purple outline of the hills, is the grandest edifice ever 
built by man, painted against God's loveliest sky." — Hawthorne. 

Here the band plays under the great palm-tree on Thurs- 
day and Sunday afternoons, when immense crowds collect, 
showing every phase of Roman life — and disperse again as 
the Ave-Maria bell rings from the churches, either to descend 
into the city, or to hear benediction sung by the nuns in the 
Trinita de' Monti. 

"When the fashionable hour of rendezvous arrives, the same spot, 
which a few minutes before was immersed in silence and solitude, 
changes as it were with the rapidity of a scene in a pantomime to an 
animated panorama. The scene is rendered not a little ludicrous by the 
miniature representation of the Ring in Hyde Park in a small compass. 
An entire revolution of the carriage-drive is performed in the short 
period of three minutes as near as maybe, and the perpetual occurrence 
of the same physiognomies and the same carriages trotting round and 
round for two successive hours, necessarily reminds one of the proceed- 
ings of a country fair, and children whirling in a roundabout." — Sir G. 
Head''s ' l^our in Rofne.^ 

"The Pincian Hill is the favourite promenade of the Roman aris- 
tocracy. At the present day, however, like most other Roman 
possessions, it belongs less to the native inhabitants ihan to the 
barbarians from Gaul, Great Britain, and beyond the sea, who have 
established a peaceful usurpation over all that is enjoyable or memor- 
able in the Eternal City. These foreign guests are indeed imgrateful, if 
they do not breathe a prayer for Pope Clement, or whatever Holy 
Father it may have been, who levelled the summit of the mount 
so skilfully, and bounded it with the pai-apet of the city wall ; who 
laid out those broad walks and drives, and overhung them with 
the shade of many kinds of tree ; who scattered the flowers of all 
seasons, and of every clime, abundantly over those smooth, central 
lawns ; who scooped out hollows in fit places, and setting great basons 
of marble in them, caused ever-gushing fountains to fill them to the 
brim ; who reared up the immemorial obelisk out of the soil that had 
long hidden it ; who placed pedestals along the borders of the avenues, 
and covered them with busts of that multitude of worthies, — statesmen, 
heroes, artists, men of letters and of song, — whom the whole world 
claims as its chief ornaments, though Italy lias produced them all. In a 
word, the Pincian garden is one of the things that reconcile the stranger 
(since he fully appreciates the enjoyment, and feels nothing of the cost,) 
to the rule of an irresponsible dynasty of Holy Fathers, who seem 



14 WALKS IN ROME. 

to have arrived p.t making life as agreeable an affair as it can 
well be. 

"In tliis pleasant spot the red-trousered French soldiers are always 
to be seen ; bearded and grizzled veterans, perhaps, -with medals of 
Algiers or the Crimea on their breasts. To them is assigned the peaceful 
duty of seeing that children do not trample on the flower-beds, nor any 
youthful lover rifle them of their fragrant blossoms to stick in his 
beloved one's hair. Here sits (drooping upon some marble bench, in 
the treacherous sunshine,) the consumptive girl, whose friends have 
brought her, for a cure, into a climate that instils poison into its very 
purest breath. Here, all day, come nursery maids, burdened with rosy 
English babies, or guiding the footsteps of little travellers from the far 
western world. Here, in the sunny afternoon, roll and rumble all 
kinds of carriages, from the Cardinal's old-fashioned and gorgeous 
purple carriage to the gay barouche of modern date. Here horsemen 
gallop on thorough-bred steeds. Here, in short, all the transitory 
population of Rome, the world's great watering-place, rides, drives, or 
promenades ! Here are beautiful sunsets ; and here, whichever way 
you turn your eyes, are scenes as well worth gazing at, both in them- 
selves and for their historical interest, as any that the sun ever rose and 
set upon. Here, too, on certain afternoons in the week, a French 
miliiary band flings out rich music over the poor old city, floating her 
with strains as loud as those other own echoless triumphs." — Haivthorne. 

The garden of the Pincio is very small, but beautifully 
laid out. At a crossroads is placed an Obelisk, brought 
from Egypt, and which the late discoveries in hierogly- 
phics show to have been erected there, in the joint names of 
Hadrian and his empress Sabina, to their beloved Antinous, 
who was drowned in the Nile a.d. 131. 

From the furthest angle of the garden we look down upon 
the strange fragment of wall known as the AIiiro-Torto. 

" Le Muro-Torto offre un souvenir curieux. On nomme ainsi un pan 
de muraille qui, avant de faire partie du rempart d'Honorius, avait 
serv'i a soutenir la terrasse du jardin du Domitius, et qui, du temps 
de Belisaire, etait deja incline comme il Test aujourd'hui. Procope 
racconte que Belisaire voulait le rebatir, mais que les Romains Ten em- 
pecherent, affinnant que ce point n'etait pas expose, parce que Saint 
Pierre avait promis de le defendre. Procope ajoute : ' Personne n'a ose 
reparer ce mur, et il reste encore dans le meme etat.' Nous pouvons 
en dire autant que Procope, et le mur, detache de la colline a laquelle 
il s'appuyait, reste encore incline et sernble pres de tomber. Ce detail du 
siege de Rome est confa-me par I'aspcct singulier du Muro-Torto, qui 
semble tonjours pres de tomber, et subsiste dans le meme etat depuis 
quatorze siecles, comme s'il etait soutenu miraculeusement par la main 
de Saint Pierre. On ne saurait guere trouver pour I'autorite temporel 
des papes, un meilleur symbole." — Avipere, Evip. ii. 397. 

" At the furthest point of the Pincio. you look down from the parapet 
upon the Muro-Torto, a massive fragment of the oldest Roman wail, 
which juts over, as if ready to tumble down by its own weight, yet 



THE STORY OF THE PI NCI O. 15 

seems still the most indestructible piece of work that men's hanc-, ever 
piled together. In the blue distance rise Soracte, and other heights, 
which have gleamed afar, to our imagination, but look scarcely real to 
our bodily eyes, because, being dreamed about so much, they have taken 
the aerial tints which belong only to a dream. These, nevertheless, are 
the solid framework of hills that shut in Rome, and its broad surround- 
ing Campagna ; no land of dreams, but the broadest page of history, 
crowded so full with memorable events, that one obliterates another, as 
if Time had crossed and recrossed his own records till they grew 
illegible. " — Hawthorne. 

In early imperial times the site of the Pincio garden was 
occupied by the famous villa of Lucullus, who had gained 
his enormous wealth as general of the Roman armies in 
Asia. 

"The life of Lucullus was like an ancient comedy, where first we see 
great actions, both political and military, and afterwards feasts, de- 
bauches, races by torchlight, and every kind of frivolous amusement. 
For among frivolous amusements, I cannot but reckon his sumptuous 
villas, walks, and baths ; and still more so the paintings, statues, and 
other works of art which he collected at immense expense, idly squan- 
dering away upon them the vast fortune he amassed in the wars. Inso- 
much that now, when luxury is so much advanced, the gardens of 
Lucullus rank with those of the kings, and are esteemed the most mag- 
nificent even of these." — Plutarch. 

Here, in his Pincian villa, Lucullus gave his celebrated 
feast to Cicero and Pompey, merely mentioning to a slave 
beforehand that he should sup in the hall of Apollo, which 
was understood as a command to prepare all that was most 
sumptuous. 

After Lucullus— the beautiful Pincian villa belonged to Valerius 
Asiaticus, and in the reign of Claudius was coveted by his fifth wife, 
Messalina. She suborned Silius, her son's tutor, to accuse him of a 
licentious life, and of corrupting the army. Being condemned to death, 
"Asiaticus declined the counsel of his friends to starve himself, a course 
which might leave an interval for the chance of pardon ; and after 
the lofty fashion of the ancient Romans, bathed, perfumed, and 
supped magnificently, and then opened his veins, and let himself bleed 
to death. Before dying he inspected the pyre prepared for him in his 
own gardens, and ordered it to be removed to another spot, that an 
umbrageous plantation which overhung it might not be injured by the 
flames." 

_ As soon as she heard of his death, Messalina took possession of the 
villa, and held high revel there with her numerous lovers, with the 
most favoured of whom, Silius, she had actually gone through the 
religious rites of marriage in the lifetime of the emperor, who was 
absent at Ostia. But a conspiracy among the freedmen of the royal 
household informed tlic emperor of what was taking place, and at last 
even Claudius was aroused to a sense of her enormities. 



1 6 WALKS IN ROME. 

*' In her suburban palace, Messalina was abandoning herself to volup- 
tuous transports. The season was mid-autumn, the vintage was in full 
progress ; the wine-press was groaning ; the ruddy juice was streaming ; 
women girt with scanty fawnskins danced as drunken Bacchanals around 
her : while she herself, with her hair loose and disordered, brandished 
the thyrsus in the midst, and Silius by her side, buskined and crowned 
with ivy, tossed his head to the flaunting strains of Silenus and the 
Satyrs. Vettius, one, it seems, of the wanton's less fortunate paramours, 
attended the ceremony, and climbed in merriment a lofty tree in the 
garden. When asked what he saw, he replied, ' an awful storm from 
Ostia ' ; and whether there was actually such an appearance, or whether 
the A^'ords were spoken at random, they were accepted afterwards as an 
omen of the catastrophe which quickly followed. 

'* For now in the midst of these wanton orgies the rumour quickly 
spread, and swiftly messengers arrived to confirm it, that Claudius knew 
it all, that Claudius was on his way to Rome, and was coming in anger 
and vengeance. The lovers part : Silius for the forum and the tribunals ; 
Messalina for the shade of her gardens on the Pincio, the price of the 
blood of the murdered Asiaticus." Once the empress attempted to go 
forth to meet Claudius, taking her children with her, and accompanied 
by Vibidia, the eldest of the ves*al virgins, whom she persuaded to 
intercede for her, but her enemies prevented her gaining access to 
her husband ; Vibidia was satisfied for the moment by vague pro- 
mises of a later hearing ; and upon the arrival of Claudius in Rome, 
Silius and the other principal lovers of the empress were put to death. 
"Still Messalina hoped. vShe had withdrawn again to the gardens of 
Lucullus, and was there engaged in composing addresses of supplication 
to her husband, in which her pride and long-accustomed insolence still 
faintly struggled into her fears. The emperor still paltered with the 
treason. He had retired to his palace ; he had bathed, anointed, and 
lain down to supper ; and, warmed with wine and generous cheer, he 
had actually despatched a message to the poor creaiznr, as he called 
her, bidding her come the next day, and plead her cause before him. 
But her enemy Narcissus, knowing how easy might be the passage 
from compassion to love, glided from the chamber, and boldly 
ordered a tribune and some centurions to go and slay his victim. 
'Such,' he said, 'was the emperor's command'; and his word was 
obeyed without hesitation. Under the direction of the freedman 
Euodus, the armed men sought the outcast in her gardens, where she 
lay prostrate on the ground, by the side of her mother Lepida. While 
their fortunes flourished, dissensions had existed between the two ; but 
now, in her last distress, the mother had refused to desert lier child, 
and only strove to nerve her resolution to a voluntary death. ' Life,' she 
urged, 'is over ; nought remains but to look for a decent exit from it.' 
But the soul of the reprobate was corrupted by her vices ; she retained 
no sense of honour ; she continued to weep and groan as if hope still 
existed ; when suddenly the doors were burst open, the tribune and his 
swordsmen appeared before her, and Euodus assailed her, dumb-stricken 
as she lay, with contumelious and brutal reproaches. Roused at l.'ist lo 
the consciousness of her desperate condition, she took a weapon from 
one of the men's hands and pressed it trembHng against her throat and 
bosom. Still she wanted resolution to give the thrust, and it was by a 



VILLA MEDICI. l^ 

blew of the tribune's falchion that the horrid deed was finally accom- 
plished. The death of Asiaticus was avenged on the very spot ; the 
hot blood of the wanton smoked on the pavement of his gardens, and 
stained with a deeper hue the variegated marbles of Lucullus." — AIe?'i- 
vale, Hist, of the R.wia^is under the Empire. 

From the garden of the Pincio a terraced road (beneath 
which are the long-closed catacombs of St. Felix) leads to 
the Vil/a Medici, built for Cardinal Ricci da Montepulciano 
by Annibale Lippi in 1540. Shortly afterwards it passed 
into the hands of the Medici family, and was greatly 
enlarged by Cardinal Alessandro de Medici, aftenvards Leo 
XI. In 180T the Academy for French Art-Students, founded 
by Louis XIV., was estabHshed here. The villa contains a 
fine collection of casts, open every day except Sunday. 

Behind the villa is a beautiful Gai-den (which can be 
visited on application to the porter). The terrace, which 
looks down upon the Villa Borghese, is bordered by ancient 
sarcophagi, and has a colossal statue of Rome. The garden 
side of the villa has sometimes been ascribed to Michael 
Angelo. 

"La plus grande coquetterie de la maison, c'est la fajade posterieure. 
Ella tient son i-ang parmi les chefs-d'oeuvre de la Renaissance. On 
dirait que I'architecte a epuise une mine de bas-reliefs grecs et romains 
pour en tapisser son palais. Le jardin est de la meme epoque . il date 
du temps ou I'aristocratie romaine professait le plus profond dedain pour 
les fleurs. On n'y voit que des massifs de verdure, alignes avec un soin 
scrupuleux. Six pelouses, entourees de haies a hauteur d'appui, s'eten- 
dent devant la villa et laissent courir la vue jusqu'au mont Soracte, qui 
ferme I'horizon. A gauche, quatre fois quatre carres de gazon s'en- 
cadrent dans de hautes murailles de lauriers, de buis gigantesques et de 
chenes verts, Les murailles se rejoignent au-dessus des allees et les 
enveloppent d'une ombre fraiche et mysterieuse. A droite, une ter- 
rasse d'une style noble encadre un bois de chenes verts, tordus et 
eventres par le temps. J'y vais quelquefois travailler a I'ombre ; et le 
merle rivalise avec le rossignol au-dessus de ma tete, comme un beau 
chantre de village peut rivaliser avec Mario ou Roger. Un peu plus 
loin, une vigne toute rustique s'etend jusqu'a la porte Pinciana, ou 
Belisaire a mendie, dit-on. Les jardins petits et grands sont semes de 
statues, d' Hermes, et de marbres de toute sorte. L'eau coule dans des 
sarcophages antiques ou jaiilit dans des vasques de marbre : le marbre et 
l'eau sont les deux luxes de Rome." — About, Rome Contemporaine. 

" The grounds of the Villa Medici are laid out in the old fashion of 
straight paths, with borders of box, which form hedges of great height 
and density, and are shorn and trimmed to the evenness of a wall of 
stone, at the top and sides. There are green alleys, vv-ith long vistas, 
overshadowed by ilex-trees ; and at each intersection of the paths the 
visitor finds seats of lichen-covered stone to repose upon, and marble 
Statues that look forlornly at him, regretful of their lost noses. In the 



i8 WALKS IN ROME. 

more open portions of the garden, before the sculptured front of the 
villa, you see fountains and flower-beds ; and, in their season, a profu- 
sion of roses., from which the genial sun of Italy distils a fragrance, to 
be scattered abroad by the no less genial breeze." — Hawthorne. 

A second door will admit to the higher terrace of the 
Boschetto ; a tiny wood of ancient ilexes, from which a steep 
flight of steps leads to the " Belvidere," whence there is a 
beautiful view. 

" They asked the porter for the key of the Bosco, which was given, 
and they entered a grove of ilexes, whose gloomy shade effectually shut 
out the radiant sunshine that still illuminated the western sky. They 
then ascended a long and exceedingly steep flight of steps, leading up 
to a high mound covered with ilexes. 

" Here both stood still, side by side, gazing silently on the city, 
where dome and bell-tower stood out against a sky of gold ; the deso- 
late Monte Mario and its stone pines rising dark to the right. Behind, 
close at hand, Avere sombre ilex woods, amid which rose here and there 
the spire of a cypress or a ruined arch, and on the highest point, the 
white Villa Ludovisi ; beyond, stretched the Campagna, girdled by hills 
melting into light under the evening sky." — Madeinoisdle Mori. 

From the door of the Villa Medici is the scene familiar to 
artists, of a fountain shaded by ilexes, which frame a 
distant view of St. Peter's. 

" Je vois (de la Villa M-edici) les quatre cinquiemes de la ville ; je 
compte les sept collines, je parcours les rues regulieres qui s'etendent 
entire le cours et la place cl'Espagne. je fais le d'enombrement des palais, 
des eglises, des domes, et des clochers ; je m'egare dans le Ghetto et 
dans la Trastevcre. Je ne vois pas des ruines autant que j'en voudrais : 
elles sont ramassees la-bas, sur ma gauche, aux environs du P'orum. Ce- 
pendant nous avons tout pres de nous la colonne Antonine et la mau- 
solee d' Adrien. La vue'est fermee agreablement par les pins de la villa 
Pamphili, qui reunissent leurs larges parasols et font comme une table a 
mille pieds pour un repas de geants. L'horizon fuit a gauche a des 
distances infinies ; la plame est nue, onduleuse et bleue comme la mer. 
Mais si je vous mettais en presence d'un spectacle si etendu et si divers, 
en seul objet attirerait vos regards, un seul frapperait votre attention : 
vous n'auriez des yeux que pour Saint Pierre. Son dome est moitie 
dans la ville, moitie dans la ciel. Quand j'ouvre ma fenetre, vers cinque 
heures du matin, je vois Rome noyee dans les brouillards de la fievre : 
seul, le dome de Saint-Pierre est colore par la lumiere rose du soleil 
levant." — About. 

The terrace (" La Passeggiata ") ends at the Obelisk of the 
Tiinitd de Monti, erected here in 1822 by Pius VII., who 
found it near the Church of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme. 

*' When the Ave Maria sounds, it is time to go to the church of 
Trinita de' Monti, where French nuns sing ; and it is charming to hear 
them. 1 declare to heaven that I am become quite toh:rant, and listeu 



TRINITA DE' MONTI. 19 

to bad music with edification ; but what can I do ? The composition is 
perfectly ridiculous, the organ -playing even more absurd : but it is 
twilight, and the whole of the small bright church is filled with persons 
kneeling, lit up by \:i^ sinking sun each time that the door is opened ; 
both the singing-nuns have the sweetest voices in the world, quite 
tender and touching, more especially when one of them sings the 
responses in her melodious voice, which we are accustomed to hear 
chaunted by priests in a loud, harsh, monotonous tone. The impres- 
sion is very singular ; moreover, it is well known that no one is per- 
mitted to see the fair singers, so this caused me to form a strange 
resolution. I have composed something to suit their voices, which I 
have observed very minutely, and I mean to send it to them. It will 
be pleasant to hear my chaunt performed by persons I never saw, 
especially as they must in turn sing it to the 'barbaro Tedescho.' whom 
they also never beheld." — Mendelsso/ui s Letters. 

" In the evenings people go to the Trinita to hear the nuns sing from 
the organ-gallery. It sounds like the singing of angels. One sees in 
the choir troops of young scholars, moving with slow and measured 
steps, with their long white veils, like a flock of spirits." — Fre^ 
derika Brevier. 

The Church of the Trinita de' Monti was built in 1495 by 
Charles VIII. of France, at the request of S. Francesco di 
Paola. In the French revolution it was plundered, but was 
restored by Louis XVIII. in 18 17. It contains several in- 
teresting paintings. 

In the second chapel on the left is the Descent from the 
Cross, the masterpiece of Daniele da Vo/te7'ra^ declared by 
Nicholas Poussin to be the third picture in the world, but 
terribly injured by the French in -their attempts to remove 
it. 

"We might almost fancy ourselves spectators of the mouniful scene, 
— the Redeemer, while being removed from the cross, gradually sinking 
down with all that relaxation of limb and utter helplessness which 
belongs to a dead body ; the assistants engaged in their various duties, 
and thrown into different and contrasted attitudes, intently occupied 
with the sacred remains which they so reverently gaze upon ; the 
mother of the Lord in a swoon amidst her afflicted companions ; the 
disciple whom he loved standing with outstretched arms, absorbed in 
contemplating the mysterious spectacle. The truth in the representa- 
tion of the exposed parts of the body appears to be nature itself. The 
colouring of the heads and of the whole picture accords pi'ecisely with 
the subject, displaying strength rather than delicacy, a harmony, and in 
short a degree of skill, of which M. Angelo himself might have been 
proud, if the picture had been inscribed with his name. And to this I 
believe the author alluded, when he painted his friend with a looking- 
glass near it, as if to intimate that he might recognize in the picture a 
reflection of himself." — Lanzi. 

** Daniele da Volterra's Descent from the Cross is one of the cele- 
brated pictures of the world, and has veiy grand features. The body is 



20 WALKS IX ROME. 

not skilfully sustained ; nevertheless the number of strong men employed 
about it makes up in sheer muscle for the absence of skill. Here are 
four ladders against the cross, stalwart figures standing, ascending, and 
descending upon each, so that the space between the cross and the 
ground is absolutely alive with magnificent lines. The Virgin lies on 
one side, and is like a grand creature struck down by a sudden death- 
blow. She has fallen, like Ananias in Raphael's cartoon, with her head 
bent backwards, and her arm under her. The crown of thorns has been 
taken from the dead brow, and rests on the end of one of the ladders." 
— Lady Eastlakc. 

The third chapel on the right contains an Assumption 
of the Virgin, another work of Danicle da Volterra. The 
fifth chapel is adorned with frescoes of his school. The 
sixth has frescoes of the school of Pei'iigino. The frescoes 
in the right transept are by F. Ziiccaro and Fierino del Vaga; 
in that of the Procession of St. Gregory the mausoleum of 
Hadrian is represented as it appeared in the time of Leo X. 

The adjoining Convent of the Sacre Coein' is much fre- 
quented as a place of education. The nuns are all persons 
of rank. When a lady takes the veil, her nearest relations 
mherit her property, except about looo/., which goes to the 
convent. The nuns are allowed to retain no personal pro- 
perty, but if they wish still to have the use of their books, 
they give them to the convent library. They receive visitors 
every afternoon, and quantities of people go to them from 
curiosity, on the plea of seeking advice. 

From the Trinita the two popular streets — Sistina and 
Gregoriana — branch off; the former leading in a direct line 
(though the name changes) to Sta. Maria Maggiore, and 
thence to St. John Lateran and Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme. 
The house adjoining the Trinita was that of Nicholas 
Poussin ; that at the angle of the two streets, called the 
Ihnpietto, was once inhabited by Claude Lorraine. The 
adjoining house (64 Sistina) — formerly known as Palazzo 
della Regina di Polonia, from Maria Casimira, Queen of 
Poland, who resided there for some years — was inhabited 
by the Zuccari family, and has paintings on the ground- 
floor by Federigo Zuccaro. One of the rooms on the first- 
floor was adorned with frescoes by modern German artists 
at the expense of the Prussian consul Bartholdy, viz. : — 

The Selling of Joseph : Overbeck. 

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife : Veit. 

Meetmg of Joseph and his Brethren : Cornelius, 

The Seven Lean Years : Overbeck, 



VIA MARGUTTA. 

Joseph interprets the Dreams in Prison : Schadow. 
The Brethren bring Joseph's Coat to Jacob : Schadow. 
Joseph interprets the Dreams of Pharaoh : Cornelius. 
The Seven Plentiful Years : Veit. 



On the left of the Piazza del Popolo, the Via Bahuino 
branches off, deriving its name from the mutilated figure on 
a fountain halfway down. On the right is the Greek 
Church of S. Atanasio, attached to a college founded by- 
Gregory XIII. in 1580. 

Behind this street is the Via Margutta, almost entirely 
inhabited by artists and sculptors. 

"The Via Margutta is a street of studios and stables, crossed at the. 
upper end by a little roofed gallery with a single window, like a shabby- 
Bridge of Sighs. Horses are continually being washed and currycombed 
outside their stable doors ; frequent heaps of immondezzajo make the air 
unfragrant ; and the perspective is frequently damaged by rows of linen 
suspended across the road from window to window. Unsightly as they 
are, however, these obstacles in no wise affect the popularity of the Via 
Margutta, either as a residence for the artist, or a lounge for the amateur. 
Fashionable patrons leave their carriages at the corner, and pick their 
way daintily among the gutters and dust-heaps. A boar-hunt by Val- 
latti compensates for an unlucky splash ; and a campagna sunset of 
Desoulavey glows all the richer for the squalor thi-ough which it is ap- 
proached." — Barbara! s History. 

In this street also is situated the Costume Academy. 

" Imagine a great barn of a room, with dingy walls half covered with 
chalk studies of the figure in all possible attitudes. Opposite thedoor 
is a low platform with revolving top, and beside it an ecorche, or 
plaster figure bereft of skin, so as to exhibit the muscles. Ranges 
of benches, raised, one above the other, occupy the remainder of the 
room ; and if you wei'e to look in at about eight o'clock on a winter's 
evening, you would find them tenanted by a multitude of young artists, 
mostly in their shirt sleeves, with perhaps three or four ladies, all 
disposed around the model, who stands upon the platform in one of the 
picturesque costumes of Southern Italy, with a cluster of eight lamps, 
intensified by a powerful reflector, immediately above his or her unlucky 
head. 

The costumes are regulated by Church times and seasons. During 
Lent the models were mediaeval dresses ; during the winter and carnival, 
Italian costumes of the present day ; and with Easter begin mere drape- 
ries, pieg/ie, or folds, as they are technically called. 

Every evening the subject for the next night is chalked up on a 
black board beside the platform ; for the next two nights rather ; for 
each model poses for two evenings ; the position of his feet being 
chalked upon the platform, so as to secure the same attitude on the 
second evening. Consequently, four hours are allowed for each drawing. 
. . . . 'The. pieg/ie a.\& only for a single time, as it would be inijius- 



22 WALKS IN ROME. 

sible to secure the same folds twice over The experse of 

attendhig the Academy, inchiding attendance, each person's share in 
the model, arid his own especial lamp, amounts to 2\d. an evening, or 
a scudo and a half (about bs. 6d.) a month ; marvellously cheap, it must 
be confessed." — //, Jlf. B., in Once a Week. 

The Babuino ends in the ugly but central square of the 
Piazza di Spagna, where many of the best hotels and 
shops are situated. Hence the Trinita is reached by a 
magnificent flight of steps (disgracefully ill kept), which 
was built by Alessandro Specchi at the expense of a private 
individual, M. Gueffier, secretary to the French embassy 
at Rome, under Innocent XIII. 

' * No art -loving visitor to Rome can ever have passed the noble flight 
of steps which leads from the Piazza di Spagna to the Church of the 
Trinita de' Monti without longing to transfer to his sketch-book the 
picturesque groups of models who there spend their day, basking in the 
beams of the wintry sun, and eating those little boiled beans whose 
yellow husks bestrew every place where the lower class Romans congre- 
gate — practising, in short, the 'dolce farniente.' Beppo, the celebrated 
lame beggar, is no longer to be seen there, having been banished to the 
steps of the Church of St. Agostino ; but there is old Felice, with 
conical hat, brown cloak, and bagpipes, father of half the models on the 
steps. He has been seen in an artist's studio in Paris, and is reported to 
have performed on foot the double journey between Rome and that 
capital. There are two or three younger men in blue jackets and goat- 
skin breeches ; as many women in folded linen head-dresses, and red 
or blue skirts ; and a sprinkling of children of both sexes, in costumes 
the rhiniature fac-similes of their elders. All these speedily learn to 
recognise a visitor who is interested in that especial branch of art which 
is embodied in models, and at every turn in the street such a one is met 
by the flash of white teeth, and the gracious sweetness of an Italian 
smile."— i^: M.B. 

"Among what may be called the cubs or minor lions of Rome, there 
was one that amused me mightily. It is always to be found there ; and 
its den is on the great flight of steps that lead from the Piazza di Spagna 
to the Church of the Trinita de' Monti. In plainer words, these steps 
are the great place of resort for the artists' ' INIodels,' and there they are 
constantly waiting to be hired. The first time 1 Avent up there, I could 
not conceive why the faces seemed so familiar to me ; why they appeared 
to have beset me, for years, in every possible variety of action and cos- 
tume ; and how it came to pass that they started up before me, in Rome, 
in the broad day, like so many saddled and bridled nightmares. I soon 
found that we had made acquaintance, and improved it, for several years, 
on the walls of various Exhibition Galleries. There is one old gentle- 
man with long white hair, and an immense beard, who, to my know- 
ledge, has gone half-through the catalogues of the Royal Academy. 
This is the venerable or patriarchal model. He carries a long staff; 
and every knob and twist in that staff I kave seen, faithfully delineated, 
innumerable times. There is another man in a blue cloak, who always 




THE PROPAGANDA. 23 

pretends to be asleep in the sun (when there is any), and who,, I neeil 
not say, is always very wide awake, and very attentive to t]^- disposi- 
tion of his legs. This is the rt'^/a'/ir ;//>///t- model. The^^e^is another 
man in a brown cloak, Avho leans against a wall, with hi^V arms /old ed ^" 
in his mantle, ami look out of the corners of his eyes, \vlwch dr-e- ji;st 
visible beneath his broad slouched hat. This is the assassin model. ^\^\ 

There is another man, who constantly looks over his owii s^roulder, and V\\ V\ 

is always going way, but never goes. This is the haughty, or scornful ^^ A 

model. As to Domestic Happiness, and Holy Families;, -they should ">-• \ 

come very cheap, for there are heaps of them, all up the steps ; and the - ^ 

cream of the thing is, that they are all the falsest vagabonds in fhe\ ^'•' 

world, especially made up for the purpose, and having ito counterpai 
in Rome or any other part of the habitable globe." — Dick 

The Barcaccia, the fountain at the foot of the^ 
ciited by Bernini^ is a stone boat commemoi 
naumachia of Domitian, — naval battles which 
an artificial lake surrounded by a kind of theatre, 
once occupied the site of this piazza. In front 
lazzo di Spagna (the residence of the Spanish ambassador), 
which gives its name to the square, stands a Columii of ci- 
pollino, supporting a statue of the Virgin, erected by 
Pius IX. in 1854, in honour of his new dogma of the Im- 
maculate Conception. At the base are figures of Moses, 
David, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. 

The Piazza is closed by the Collegia di Propaganda Fede, 
founded in 1622 by Gregory XV., but enlarged by Urban 
VIII., who built the present edifice from plans of Bernini. 
Like all the buildings erected by this pope, its chief deco- 
rations are the bees of the Barberini. The object of the 
college is the education of youths of all nations as mis- 
sionaries. 

*' The origin of the Propaganda is properly to besought in an edict of 
Gregory XHL, by which the direction of eastern missions was confided 
to a certain number of cardinals, who were commanded to promote the 
printing of catechisms in the less known tongues. But the institution 
was not firmly established ; it was unprovided with the requisite means, 
and was by no means comprehensive in its views. It was at the sug- 
gestion of the great preacher Girolamo da Narni that the idea was first 
conceived of extending the above-named institution. At his suggestion, 
a congregation was established in all due form, and by this body regular 
meetings were to be held for the guidance and conduct of missions in 
every part of the w^ld. The first fund^were advanced by Gregory ; 
his nephew contributed from his private property ; and since this insti- 
tution was in fact adapted to a want, the pressure of which was then felt, 
it increased in prosperity and splendour. Who does not know the 
services performed by the Propaganda for the diffusion of philosophical 
Studies? and not this only ; — the institution has generally laboured (in 



24 WALKS IN ROME. 

its earliest years most successfully, perhaps) to fulfil its vocation in a 
liberal and noble spirit."— A'^/z^if, IJist. of the Popes. 

" On y re9oit des jeunes gens nes dans lespaysultramontains et orien- 
taux, ou sont les intideles et les heretiques ; ils y font leur education 
religieuse et civile, et retournent dans leur pays comme missionnaires 
pour propager la loi." — A. Du Pays. 

" Le college du Propaganda Fede, ou I'on engraisse des missionnaires 
pour donner a manger aux cannibales. C'est, ma foi, un excellent 
ragout pour eux, que deux peres franciscains a la sauce rousse. Le 
capucin en daube, se mange aussi comme le renard, quand il a ete gele. 
II y a a la Propagande une bibliotheque, une imprimerie fournie de toutes 
sortes de caracteres des langues orientales, et de petits Chinois qu'on y 
eleve ainsi que des alouettes chanterelles, pour en attraper d'autres." 
• —De Brasses. 

In January a festival is held here, when speeches are 
recited by the pupils in all their different languages. The 
public is admitted by tickets. 



The Via Ripetta leaves the Piazza del Popolo on the 
right. Passing, on the right, a large building belonging to the 
Academy of St. Luke, we reach, on the right, the Quay of 
the Ripetta, a pretty architectural construction of Clement 
XI. in 1707. 

Hence, a clumsy ferry-boat gives access to a walk which 
leads to St. Peter's (by Porta Angelica) through the fields at 
the* back of S. Angelo. These fields are of historic in- 
terest, being the Praia Qnindia of Cincinnatus. 

" L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, the only hope of the Roman people, lived 
beyond the Tiber, opposite the place where the Navalia are, where he 
cultivated the four acres of ground whicli are now called the Quinctian 
meadows. There the messengers of the senate found him leaning on his 
spade, either digging a trencli or ploughing, but certainly occupied in 
some field labour. The salutation, ' May it be well with you and the 
republic,' was given and returned in the usual form, and he was re- 
quested to put on his toga to receive a message from the senate. 
Amazed, and asking if anything was wrong, he desired his wife Racilia 
lo fetch his toga from the cottage, and having wiped off the s\veat and 
dust with which he was covered, he came forward dressed in his toga to 
the messengers, who saluted him as dictator, and congratulated him." — 
Livy, iii. 26. 

The churches on tlie left of the Ripetta are, first, SS. 
JRocco c Martiiio^ built 1657, by Antonio de Rossi, with a 
hospital adjoining it. 

" The lying-in hospital adjoins the Church of San Rocco. It contains 
seventy beds, furnished with curtains and screens, so as to separate 
them efToctually. Females are admitted without giving their name, 



THE CORSO. 25 

their country, or their condition in life ; and such is the delicacy 
observed in their regard, that they are at liberty to wear a veil, so as to 
remain unknown even to their attendants, in order to save the honour 
of their families, and prevent abortion, suicide, or infanticide. Even 
should death ensue, the deceased remains unknown. The children are 
conveyed to Santo Spirito ; and the mother who wishes to retain her 
offspring, affixes a distinctive mark, by which it may be recognised and 
recovered. To remove all disquietude from the minds of those who 
may enter, the establishment is exempt from all civil, criminal, and 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and its threshold is never crossed except by 
persons connected with the establishment." — Dr. Donovan. 

Then, opposite the quay, S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni^ built 
for Sixtus V. by Fontana. It contains, near the altar, a 
striking figure of St. Jerome, seated, with a book upon his 
knees. 

We will now follow the Corso, which, in spite of its 
narrowness and bad side-pavements, is the finest street in 
Rome. It is greatly to be regretted that this street, which 
is nearly a mile long, should lead to nothing, instead of 
ending at the steps of the Capitol, which would have pro- 
duced a striking effect. It follows the line of the ancient 
Via Flaminia, and in consequence was once spanned by 
four triumphal arches — of Marcus Aurelius, Domitian, Clau- 
dius, and Gordian — but all these have disappeared. The 
Corso is perfectly lined with balconies, which, during the 
carnival, are filled with gay groups of maskers flinging 
confetti. These balconies are a relic of imperial times, 
having been invented at Rome, where they were originally 
called " Moeniana," from the tribune Moenius, who de- 
signed them to accommodate spectators of processions in 
the streets below. 

" The Corso is a street a mile long ; a street of shops, and palaces, 
and private houses, sometimes opening into a broad piazza. There are 
verandahs and balconies, of all shapes and sizes, to almost every house 
— not on one story alone, but often to one room or another on every story 
— put there in general with so little order or regularity, that if, year 
after year, and season after season, it had rained balconies, hailed bal- 
conies, snowed balconies, blown balconies, they could scarcely have 
come into existence in a more disorderly manner," — Dickens. 

On the left of the Corso is the Augustine Church of Gesii 
e Maria, with a fa9ade by Ri?ia/di. Almost opposite, is the 
Church of S. Giacomo degli Incurabili^ by Carlo Madenio. 
It is attached to a surgical hospital for 350 patients. In 



26 WALKS IN ROME. 

the adjoining Strada S. Giacomo was the studio of Canova, 
recognizable by fragments of bas-reHefs engrafted in its 
walls. 

Three streets beyond this (on right) is the Via di Ponte- 
fici (so called from a series of papal portraits, now destroyed, 
which formerly existed on the walls of one of its houses), 
where (No. 57R) is the entrance to the remains of the 
Mausolewn of Augustus. 

" Hard by the banks of the Tiber, in the grassy meadows where the 
Roman youths met in athletic and martial exercises, there rose a lofty 
marble tower with three retiring stages, each of whicli had its terrace 
covered with earth and planted with cypresses. These stages were 
pierced with numerous chambers, destined to receive, row within row, 
and story upon story, the remains of every member of the imperial 
family, with many thousands of their slaves and freedmen. In the centre 
of that massive mound the great founder of the empire was to sleep his 
last sleep, while his statue was ordained to rise conspicuous on its 
summit, and satiate its everlasting gaze with the view of his beloved 
city. " — Merivale. 

The first funeral here was that of Marcellus, son of Octa- 
via, the sister of Augustus, and first husband of his daughter 
Julia, who died of malaria at Baiae, B.C. 23. 

" Quantos ille virum magnam Mavortis ad urbem 
Campus aget gemitus ! vel qu?e, Tiberine, videbis 
Tunera, ciim tumulum prreterlabere recentem ! 
Nee puer Iliaca quisquam de gente Latinos 
In tantum spe toilet avos ; nee Romula quondam 
Ullo se tantum tellus jactabit alumno. 
Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, invictaque bello 
Dextera ! non illi se quisquam impune tulisset 
Obvius armato, seu quum pedes iret in hostem, 
Sen spumantis equi foderet calcaribus armos. 
Heu, miserande puer ! si qua fata aspera rumpas, 
Tu Marcellus eris." 

JEneid, vi. 873. 

The next member of the family buried here was Agrippa, 
the second husband of Julia, ob. 12 b.c. Then came Octavia, 
sister of the emperor and widow of Antony, honoured by a 
public funeral, at which orations were delivered by Augustus 
himself, and Drusus, son of the empress Livia. Her body 
was carried to the tomb by Tiberius (afterwards emperor) 
and Drusus, the two sons of the empress. Drusus (b.c. 9) 
died in a German campaign by a fall from his horse, and 
was brought back hither for interment. In a.d. 14 the great 
Augustus died at Nola, and his body was burnt here on a 



MA US OLE UM OF A UG US TUS. 2 7 

funeral pile so gigantic, that the widowed Livia, dishevelled 
and ungirt, with bare feet, attended by the principal Roman 
senators, had to watch it for five days and nights, before it 
cooled sufficiently for them to collect the ashes of the em- 
peror. At the moment of its being lighted an eagle was let 
loose from the summit of the pyre, under which form a 
senator, named Numerius Atticus, was induced, by a gift 
from Livia equivalent to 250,000 francs, to swear that he 
saw the spirit of Augustus fly away to heaven. Then came 
Germanicus, son of the first Drusus, and nephew of Tibe- 
rius, ob. A.D. 1 9, at Antioch, where he was believed to have 
been poisoned by Piso and his wife Plancina. Then, in a.d. 
23, Drusus, son of Tiberius, poisoned by his wife, Livilla, 
and her lover, Sejanus : then the empress, Livia, who died 
A.D. 29, at the age of 86. Agrippina, widow of Germanicus 
(ob. A.D. -T^T^), starved to death, and her two sons, Nero and 
Drusus, also murdered by Tiberius, were long excluded from 
the family sepulchre, but were eventually brought hither by 
the youngest brother Gains, afterwards the emperor Caligula. 
Tiberius, who died a.d. 37, at the villa of Lucullus at 
Misenum, was brought here for burial. The ashes of 
Caligula, murdered a.d. 41, and first buried ii?r the Horti 
Lamiani on the Esquiline, were transferred here by his 
sisters. In his reign, Antonia, the widow of Drusus, and 
mother of Germanicus, had died, and her ashes were laid 
up here. The Emperor Claudius, a.d. 54, murdered by 
Agrippina; his son, Britannicus, a.d. 55, murdered by 
Nero ; and the Emperor Nerva, a.d. 98, were the latest 
inmates of the mausoleum. 

The last cremation which occurred here was long after 
the mausoleum had fallen into ruin, when the body of the 
tribune Rienzi, after having hung for two days at S. 
Marcello, was ordered to be burnt here by Jugurta and 
Sciaretta, and was consumed by a vast multitude of J ews 
(out of flattery to the Colonna, their neighbours at the 
Ghetto), "in a fire of dry thistles, till it was reduced to 
ashes, and no fibre of it remained." 

■ There is nothing now remaining to testify to the former 
magnificence of this building. The area is used in summer 
as an open-air theatre, where very amusing little plays are 
very well acted. Among its massive cells a poor washer- 
woman, known as " Sister Rose," established, some ten years 

D 



28 WALKS IN ROME. 

ago, a kind of hospital for aged women (several of them 
centagenarians), whom she supported entirely by her own 
exertions, having originally begun by taking care of one old 
woman, and gradually adding another and another. The 
English church service was first performed in Rome in the 
Palazzo Correa, adjoining this building. 

Opposite the Via de' Pontefici, the Via Vittoria leaves 
the Corso. To the Ursuline convent in this street (founded 
by Camilla Borghese in the seventeenth century) Madame 
Victoire and Madame Adelaide (" tantes du Roi ") fled in 
the beginning of the great French revolution, and here they 
died. 

The Church of S. Carlo in Corso (on right) is the 
national church of the Lombards. It is a handsome build- 
ing with a fine dome. The interior was commenced by 
Lunghi in 1614, and finished by Fietro da Cortona. It 
contains no objects of interest, unless a picture of the 
Apotheosis of S. Carlo Borromeo (the patron of the 
church), over the high altar, by Caido Maratla, can be called 
so. The heart of the saint is preserved under the altar. 

Just beyond this on the left, the Via Co7idotti — almost 
lined with jewellers'-shops — branches off to the Piazza di 
Spagna, The Trinita de' Monti is seen beyond it. The 
opposite street. Via Fontanella, leads to St. Peter's, and in 
five minutes to the magnificent — 

Palazzo Borghese^ begun in 1590 by Cardinal Deza, from 
designs of Martino Lunghi, and finished by Paul V. 
(Camilio Borghese, 1605 — 21), from those of Flammio 
Ponzio. The apartments inhabited by the family are hand- 
some, but contain few objects of interest. 

**In the reign of Paul V. the Borgliese became the weaUhiest and 
most powerful family in Rome. In the year 1612, the church benefices 
already conferred upon Cardinal Scipione Borghese were computed to 
secure him an income of 150,000 scudi. The temporal offices were 
bestowed on Marc- Antonio Borghese, on whom the Pope also conferred 
the principality of Sulmona in Naples, besides giving him rich palaces 
in Rome and the most beautiful villas in the neighbourhood. He 
loaded his nephews with presents ; we have a list of them through his 
whole reign down to the year 1620. They are sometimes jewels or 
vessels of silver, or magnificent furniture, which was taken directly from 
the stores of the palace and sent to the nejihews ; at other times car- 
riages, rich arms, as muskets and falconets, were presented to them ; 
but the principal thing was the round sums of hard money. These 
accounts make it appear that to the year 1620, they had received in 



PALAZZO BORGHESE. 29 

ready money 689,627 scudi, 31 baj ; in luoglii di monte, 24,600 scudi, 
according to their nominal value ; in places, computing them at the sum 
their sale would have brought to the treasur}', 268,176 scudi ; all which 
amounted, as in the case of" the Aldobrandini, to nearly a million. 

*' Nor did the Borghese neglect to invest their wealth in real property. 
They acquired eighty estates in the Campagna of Rome ; the Roman 
nobles suffering themselves to be tempted into the sale of their ancient 
hereditary domain by the large prices paid them, and by the high rate 
of interest borne by the luoghi di monte, which they purchased with 
the money thus acquired. In many other parts of the ecclesiastical 
states, the Borghese also seated themselves, the pope facilitating their 
doing so by the grant of peculiar privileges. In some places, for 
example, they received the right of restoring exiles ; in others, that of 
holding a market, or certain exemptions were granted to those who 
became their vassals. They were freed from various imposts, and even 
obtained a bull, by virtue of Avhich their possessions were never to be 
confiscated." — Ranke, Hist, of the Popes. 

"Si Ton pent reprocher a Paul, avec Muratori, ses liberalites envers 
ses neveux, envers le cardinal Scipion, envers le due de Sulmone, il est 
juste d'ajouter que la plupart des membres de cette noble famille rivalise- 
rent avec le pape de magnificence et de generosite. Or, chaque annee, 
Paul V. distribuait un million d'ecus d'or aux pelerins pauvres et un 
million et demi aux autres necessiteux. C'est a lui que remonte la 
fondation de la banque du Saint-Esprit, dont les riches immeubles 
servirent d'hypotheques aux depots qui lui furent confies. Mais ce fut 
surtout dans les constructions qu'il entreprit, que Paul V. deploya une 
royale magnificence." — Goiirnerie. 

The Borghese Picture Gallery is the best private collec- 
tion in Rome, and is open to the public daily from 9 to 2, 
except on Saturdays and Sundays.' The gallery is entered 
from the side of the palace towards the Piazza Borghese. 
It contains several gems, which are here marked with an 
asterisk ; noticeable pictures are : — 

\st Room. — Schools of Milan and Perugia. 

1. Holy Family : Sandi-o Botticelli, 

2. Holy Family : Lorejtzo di Cirdi. 

3. Holy Family : Paris Alfani Peruglno. 

4. Portrait : Lorenzo di Ci'edi. 

5. Vanity: School of Leonardo da Vinci. 
27, 28. Petrarch and Laura. 

32. St. Agatha : School of Leonardo. 

33. The Young Christ. School of Leonardo. 

34. Madonna : School of Perugino. 

35. Raphael as a boy : Raphael ? 

43. Madonna : Francesco Francia ? 

44. Calvario : C. Crivelli. 
48. St. Sebastian : Perngino. 

49, 57. History of Joseph : Pinturicchio. 

59. Presepio : Sketch attributed to Raphael -vhen ywing. 
61. St. Antonio. Francesco Francia. 



30 WALKS IN ROME. 

66. Presepio : Mazzoliiio. 

67. Adoration of the Child Jesus : Ortolaito. 

68. Christ and St. Thomas : Mazzoluio? 

69. Holy Family : Pollajuolo. 

2nd Room. — Chiefly of the school of Garofalo. 

6. Madonna with St. Joseph and St. Michael : Garofalo. 
9. The mourners over the dead Christ : Garofalo* 
18. Portrait of Julius II. : Giulio Romano, after Raphael. 

22. Portrait of a Cardinal : Bronzino? called Raphael.* 

23. ' Madonna col divin'amore' : School of Raphael.* 

26. Portrait of Caesar Borgia : Brojizino, attributed to Raphael.* \ 

28. Portrait of a (naked) woman : Bronziiw. 

36. Holy Family : Andrea del Sarto. 

38. Entombment : Raphael* 
This picture was the last work of Raphael before he went to Rome. 
It was ordered by Atalanta Baglioni for a chapel in S. Francesco de' 
Conventuali at Perugia. Paul V. bought it for the Borghese. The 
' Faith, Hope, and Charity ' at the Vatican, formed a predella for this 
picture. 

*' Raphael's picture of * Bearing the Body of Christ to the Sepulchre,' 
though meriting all its fame in respect of drawing, expression, and 
knowledge, has lost all signs of reverential feeling in the persons of the 
bearers. The reduced size of the winding-sheet is to blame for this, by 
bringing them rudely in contact with their precious burden. Nothing 
can be finer than their figures, or more satisfactory than their labour, if 
we forget what it is they are carrying ; but it is the weight of the burden 
only, and not the character of it, which the painter has kept in view, 
and we feel that the result would have been the same had these figures 
been carrying a sack of sand. Here, from the youth of the figure, the 
bearer at the feet appears to be St. John." — Lady Eastlake. 

40. Holy Family : Fy-a Bartolomeo. 

43. Madonna : Fr. Francia. 

44. Madonna : Sodovia. 

51. St. Stephen: Francesco Francia.* 

59. Adoration of the Magi : Mazzolino. 

60. Presepio : Garofalo. 

65. The Fornarina : Copy of Raphael, Giidio Rojuano? 
69. St. John Baptist in the \Yilderness : Giulio Romano. 

yd Room. — Chiefly of the school of Andrea del Sarto. 
(The works of this painter are often confounded with those 
of his disciple, Domenico Puligo. ) 

1. Christ bearing the Cross : Andrea Solaria. 

2. Portrait : Parmigianino. 

5. ' Noli me tangere ' ; Bi-onzino ? 

II. The Sorceress Circe : Dosso Dossi. 

13. Mater Dolorosa : Solaria? 

22. Holy Family : School of Raphael. 

24 Madonna and Child with three children : A. del Sarto. 

\ All authorities agree that this beautiful portrait is not the work of Raphael. 
Kujjier also denies that it is the likeness of Cassar Borgia. 



PALAZZO BORGHESE. 31 

28. Madonna, Child, and St. John : A. del Sarto. 

29. Madonna, Child, St. John, and St. Elizabeth. Pierino del 

Vaga. 
33. Holy Family : Pierino del P^aga. 

35. Venus and Cupids : A. del Sarto. 
40. Danae : Correggio. * 

In the corner of this picture are the celebrated Cupids 
sharpening an arrow. 
42. Cosmo de' Medici : Bronzino. 

46. The Reading Magdalene : School of Correggio. 

47. Holy Family : Poviarancio. 

48. The Flagellation : Sebastian del Piontbo.* 

49. St. M, Magdalene: A. del Sarto. 

/^h Room. — Bolognese school. 

1. Entombment : Ann. Carracci. 

2. Cumcean Sibyl : Doinenichino.^ 
18. St. Francis : Cigoli. 

20. St. Joseph : Giiido Reni. 
23. St. Francis : Ann. Carracci. 
29. St. Domenic : Ann. Carracci. 

36. Madonna : Carlo Dolce. 

37. Mater Dolorosa : Carlo Dolce. 

38, 41. Two heads for an Annunciation ; Furino. 

42. Head of Christ : Carlo Dolce. 

43. Madonna : Sassoferrato. 

c^th Room. — 

11, 12, 13, 14. The Four Seasons : Fr. Albani. 

"The Seasons, by Francesco Albani, were, beyond all others, my 
favourite pieces ; the beautiful, joyous, angel-children — the Loves, 
were as if creations of my own dreams. How deliciously they were 
staggering about in the picture of Spring ! A crowd of them were 
sharpening arrows, whilst one of them turned round the great grind- 
stone, and two others, floating above, poured water upon it. In Sum- 
mer, they flew about among the tree-branches, which were loaded with 
fruit, which they plucked ; they swam in the fresh water, and played 
with it. Autumn brought the pleasures of the chase. Cupid sits, with 
a torch in his hand, in his little chariot, which two of his companions 
draw ; while Love beckons to the brisk hunter, and shows him the 
place where they can rest themselves side by side. Winter has lulled 
all the little ones to sleep ; soundly and fast they lie slumbering around. 
The Nymphs steal their quivers and arrows, which they throw on the 
fire, that there may be an end of the dangerous weapons.^^^— Andersen, 
in The Ii}iprovisatore. 

15, La Caccia di Diana: Domenichino. 

25. The Deposition, with Angels : F. Zucca?^. 

6th Room. — 

5. Return of the Prodigal Son : Giiercino. 
7. Portrait of G. Ghislieri : Pietro da Cortona. 
10. St. Stanislaus with the Child Jesus : Ribera.* 

12. Josei^h Literpreting the Dreams in Prison : Valentin. 



32 WALKS IN ROME. 

13. The Three Ages of Man. Copy from Titian by Sassoferrato.'\ 

18. Madonna : Sassoferrato- 

22. Flight of ^'Eneas from Troy : Baroccio. 

ph Roo7n. — Richly decorated with mirrors, painted with 
Cupids by Girofiri^ and wreaths of flowers by Mario di 
Fiori. 

Wi Roo7n. — Contains nothing of importance, except a 
mosaic portrait of Paul V. by Mar cello Proveiizali. 

^th Room. — Containing several interesting frescoes. 

1. The Nuptials of Alexander and Roxana. 

2. The Nuptials of Vertumnus and Pomona. 

3. "II Bersaglio dei Dei." 

These three frescoes were brought hither from the Casino of Raphael, 
in the Villa Borghese (destroyed in the siege of Rome in 1849), and are 
supposed to have been painted by some of Raphael's pupils from his 
designs. The other frescoes in this room are by Gitilio Romano, and 
were removed fi'om the Villa Lante, when it was turned into a convent. 

\oth Room. — 

2. Cupid blindfolded by Venus : Titian. 

4. Judith: School of Titian. 
9. Portrait : Pordenone. 

13. David with the head of Goliath : Giorgione.* 

14. St. John the Baptist preaching (unfinished) : Paul Veronese. 
16. St. Domenic : Titian. 

19. Portrait : Giac. Bassano. 

2.1. " Saci-ed and Profane Love " : Titian.* 
** Out of Venice there is nothing of Titian's to compare to his Sacred 
and Profane Love. It represents two figures : one, a heavenly and 
youthful form, unclothed, except with a light drapery ; the other, a 
lovely female, dressed in the most splendid attire ; both are sitting on 
the brink of a well, into which a little winged Love is groping, appa- 
rently to find his lost dart. . . . Description can give no idea of 
the consummate beauty of this composition. It has all Titian's match- 
less warmth of colouring, with a correctness of design no other painter 
of the Venetian school ever attained. It is nature, but not individual 
nature : it is ideal beauty in all its perfection, and breathing life in 
all its tmth, tliat Ave behold." — Eaton'' s Rome. 

"Two female forms are seated on the edge of a sarcophagus-shaped 
fountain, the one in a rich Venetian costume, with gloves, flowers in 
her hands, and a plucked rose beside her, is in deep meditation, a> if 
solving some difficult question. The other is unclothed ; a red drapery 
is falling behind her, while she exhibits a form of the utmost beauty and 
delicacy ; she is turning towards the other figure with the sweetest 
persuasiveness of expression. A Cupid is playing in the fountain ; in 
the distance is a rich, glowing landscape." — Kugler. 

30. Madonna : Giov. Bellini. 

34. St. Cosmo and Damian : Venetiaji ScJiool. 

t See Kugler, ii. 449. 



PALAZZO BORGHESE. 33 

Win iwom. — ^Veronese school. 

1. Madonna with Adam (?) and St. Augustine: Lorenzo Lotto, 

MDVIir. 

2. St. Anthony preaching to the Fishes : P. Veronese ? 

3. Madonna : Titian ? 

II. Venus and Cupid on Dolphins : Liic. Cambiaso. 

14. Last Supper : And. Schiavone. 

15. Christ and the Mother of Zebedee's Children : Bonifazio.* 

16. Return of the Prodigal Son : Boni/azio* 

17. Samson : Titian. 

18. Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery: Bonifazio. 

19. ]\Iadonna and Saints : Palma Vecchio. 

In this picture the donors are introduced— the head of the man is 
grandly devout and beautiful. 

25. Portrait of Himself : Titiajt ? 
27. Portrait : Giov. Bellini. 

31. Madonna and St. Peter: Giov. Bellini. 

32. Holy Family : Pabna Vecchio. 

33. Portrait of the Family of Licini da Pordenone : Bart. Licini 

da Pordenone. 

12th Room. — Dutch and German school. 
I. Crucifixion : Vandyke. 

7. Entombment : Vandyke. 

8. Tavern Scene : Teniers. 

9. Interior: Brouerer. 

19. Louis VI. of Bavaria : Albert Diirer ? 
21. Portrait: Holbein. 

21. Landscape and Horses : Wouvermann. 

22. Cattle-piece : Paul Potter. 
24. Portrait : Holbein. 

26. Skating (in brown) : Berghem. 

27. Portrait : Vandyke. 

35. Portrait : Lncas von Leyden ? 

44. Venus and Cupid : Lucas Cranach. 

The Palazzetto Borghese on the opposite side of the piazza, 
originally intended as a dower-house for the family, is now 
let in apartments. It is this house which is described as the 
*' Palazzo Clementi," in Mademoiselle Mori. 

At the corner of the Via Fontanella and the Corso is the 
handsome Palazzo Ruspoli^ built by Ammanati in 1586. It 
has a grand white marble staircase erected by Lunghi in 
1750. The ground-floor is now occupied by the Caff^ 
Nuovo. Beyond this are the palaces Fiano, Verospi, and 
Teodoli. 

" Les palais de Rome, bien que n'ayant pas un caractere original 
comme ceux de Florence ou de Venise n'en sont pas moins cependant \\w 
des traits de la ville-des papes. lis n'appartiennent ni au moyen age, ni a 
la renaissance (le Palais de Venise seul rappelle les constructions mas- 



34 WALK'S AV ROME. 

sives de Florence) ; ils sont des modeles d 'architecture civile modeme. 
Les Bramante, les Sangallo, les Balthazar Peruzzi, qui les ont batis, 
sont des maitres qu'on ne se lasse pas d'etudier. La magnificence de 
ces palais reside principalement dans leur architecture et dans les col- 
lections artistiques que quelques-uns contiennent. Un certain nombre 
sont malheureusement dans un triste etat d'abandon. De plus, a 1' ex- 
ception d'un tres petit nombre, ils sont restes inacheves. Cela se 
con^oit ; presque tous sont le produit du luxe celibataire des papes ou 
des cardinaux ; tres-peu de ces personages ont pu voir la fin de ce 
qu'ils avaient commence. Leurs heritiers, pour le plupart, sesouciaient 
fort pen de jeter les richesses qu'ils venaient d'acquerir dans les edifices 
de luxe et de vanite. A I'interieur, le plus souvent, est un mobilier 
rare, suranne, et mesquin.' — A. Du Fays.^ 

The Palazzo Bernini (151 Corso), on the left, has, inside 
its entrance, a curious statue of " Calumny" by Berni7ii, with 
an inscription relative to his own sufferings from slander. 

On the right, the small piazza of S. Lorenzo opens out of 
the Corso. Here is the Church of S. Lorenzo in Liicina, 
founded in the fifth century, but rebuilt in its present form 
by Paul V. in 1606. The campanile is of an older date, 
and so are the lions in the portico. 

"When the lion, or other wild beast, appears in the act of preying 
on a smaller animal or on a man, is implied the severity of the Church 
towards the impenitent or heretical ; but when in the act of sporting 
with another creature, her benignity towards the neophyte and the 
docile. At the portal of St. Lorenzo in Lucina, this idea is carried out 
in the figure of a mannikin affectionately stroking the head of the 
terrible creature who protects, instead of devouring him." — Honans' 
Christian Art. 

No one should omit seeing the grand picture of Giiido 
Reni^ over the high altar of this church, — the Crucifixion, 
seen against a wild, stormy sky. Niccolas Poussin, ob. 
1660, is buried here, and one of his best known Arcadian 
landscapes is reproduced in a bas-relief upon his tomb, 
which was erected by Chateaubriand, with the epitaph, — 

" Parce piis lacrymis, vivit Pussinus in umS, 
Vivus qui dederat, nescius ipse mori. 
Hie tamen ipse silet ; si vis audire loquentem, 
Mirum est, in tabulis vivit, et eloquitur." 

In "The Ring and the Book" of Bro^^^ling, this church 
is the scene of Pompilia's baptism and marriage. She is 
made to say : — 

* Of the many Handbooks for Italy which have appeared, perhaps that of Du 
Pays (in one volumel is the most comprehensive, and — as far as its very condensed 
form allows -much the most interesting. 



S. SYLVESTRO IN CAPITE. 35 

— *'This St. Lorenzo seems 
My own particular place, I always say. ^ 

I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high 
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant, 
Eating the figure of a prostrate man." 

Here the bodies of her parents are represented as being ex 
posed after the murder : 

— "beneath the piece 
Of Master Guido Reni, Christ on Cross, 
Second to nought observable in Rome." 

On the left, where the Via della Vite turns out of the 
Corso, an inscription in the wall records the destruction, 
in 1665, of the triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, which 
existed here till that time. The magnificence of this arch 
is attested by the bas-reliefs representing the history of the 
emperor, which were removed from it, and are preserved oji 
the staircase of the palace of the Conservators. 

" Les Barbares n'en savaient pas assez et n'avaient pas assez de 
patience pour demolir les monuments remains ; mais, avec les ressources 
de la science moderne et a la suite d'une administration reguliere, on est 
venu a bout de presque tout ce que le temps avait epargne. II y'avait, 
par exemple, au commencement du xvi^. siecle, quatre arcs de triomphe 
qui n'existent plus ; le dernier, celui de Marc Aurele, a ete enleve par 
le pape Alexandre VII. On lit encore dans le Corso I'inconcevable 
inscription dans laquelle le pape se vante d'avoir debarrasse la pro- 
menade publique de ce monument, qui, vu sa date, devait etre d'un beau 
style." — Ampere, Voyage Dantesqiie. 

A little further down the Corso, on the left, the Via delle 
Convertite leads to S. Sylvestro in Capite^ one of three 
churches in Rome dedicated to the sainted pope of the 
time of Constantine. This, like S. Lorenzo, has a fine 
mediaeval campanile. The day of St. Sylvester's death, 
December 31 (a.d. 335), is kept here with great solemnity, 
and is celebrated by magnificent musical services. This pope 
was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, whence his remains 
were removed to S. Martino al Monte. The title "In 
Capite " is given to this church on account of the head of 
St. John Baptist, which it professes to possess, as is nar- 
rated by an inscription engrafted into its walls. 

The convent attached to this church was founded in 
13 18, especially for noble sisters of the house of Colonna 
who dedicated themselves to God. Here it was that the 
celebrated Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara, came to 
reside in 1525, when widowed in her thirty-sixth year, and 



36 JVALKS IN ROME. 

here she began to write her sonnets, a kmd of "In Memo- 
riam," to her husband. It is a curious proof of the vakie 
placed upon her remaining in the world, that Pope Cle- 
ment VII. was persuaded to send a brief to the abbess and 
nuns, desiring them to offer her " all spiritual and temporal 
consolations," but forbidding them, under pain of the greater 
excommunication, to permit her to take the veil in her 
affliction.'* 

At the end of this street, continued under the name of 
Via de Mercede (No. 1 1 was the residence of Bernini), and 
behind the Propaganda, is the Church of S. Andrea delle 
Fratte, whose brick cupola by Borromini is so picturesque 
a feature. The bell-tower beside it swings when the bells 
are rung. In the second chapel on the right is the beautiful 
modern tomb of Mademoiselle Julie Falconnet, by Miss 
Hosmer. The opposite chapel is remarkable for a modern 
miracle (?) annually commemorated here. 

"M. Ratisbonne, un juif, appartenant a une tres-riclie famille d' Alsace, 
qui se trouvait accidentellement a Rome, se promenant dans I'eglise de 
S. Andrea delle Fratte pendant qu'on y faisait les preparatifs pour 
les obseques de M. de la Ferronays, s'y est converli subitement. II se 
trouvait debout en face d'une chapelle dediee a I'ange gardien, a quel- 
ques pas, lorsque tout-a-coup il a eu une apparition lumineuse de la 
Sainte Vierge qui lui a fait signe d'aller vers cette chapelle. Une force 
iiTesistible I'y a entraine, il y est tombe a genoux, et il a ete a I'instant 
Chretien. Sa premiere parole a celui qui I'avait accompagne a ete, en 
relevant son visage inonde de larmes : ' II faut que ce monsieur ait beau- 
coup prie pour moi.' " — Kccit d^me Sceur. 

"Era un istante ch' io mi stava in chiesa allora che di colpo mi 
sentii preso da inesprimibile conturbamento. Alzai gli occhi ; tutto 
r edifi/io s' era dileguato a' miei sguardi ; sola una cappella aveva come 
in se raccolta tutta la luce, e di mezzo di raggianti splendori s' e mos- 
trata diritta suU' altare, grande, sfolgoreggiante, plena di maesta, e di 
dolcezza, la Vergine Maria. Una forza irresistibile m' ha sospinto 
verso di lei. La vergine m' ha fatto della mano segno d'inginocchi- 
armi ; pareva volermi dire, ' Bene ! ' Ella non mi ha parlato ma io ho 
inteso tutto." — Recital of A If onse Ratisbonne.'^' 

M. de la Ferronays, whose character is now so well known 
from the beautiful family memoirs of Mrs. Augustus Craven, 
is buried beneath the altar where this vision occurred. 
In the third chapel on the left is the tomb of Angelica 
Kauffmann ; in the right aisle that of the Prrssian artist, 

* See Trollope's Life of Vittoria Colonna. 

t See " Un Figliuol' di Maria, ossia nn Ni:ovo nostro Fratello," edited by the 
Baron di Paissiere. 1S42. 



PALAZZO CHIGI. PIAZZA COLOX.VA. 37 

Schadow. The two angels in front of the choir are by 
Benii7ii, who intended them for the bridge of S. Angelo. 

Returning to the Corso, the Via S, Claudio (left) leads 
to the pretty little church of that name, adjoining the 
Palazzo Parisani. Behind, is the Church of Sta. Maria in 
Via. 

At the corner of the Piazza Colonna is the Palazzo 
Chigi, begun in 1526 by Giacomo della Porta, and finished 
by Carlo Maderno. It contains several good pictures and a 
fine^library, but is seldom shown.* 

The most remarkable members of the great family of 
Chigi have been the famous banker Agostino Chigi, who 
lived so sumptuously at the Farnesina (see chap. 20), and 
Fabio Chigi, who mounted the papal throne as Alexander 
VII., and who long refused to have anything to do with the 
aggrandisement of his family, saying that the poor were the 
only relations he would acknowledge, and, like Christ, he 
did not wish for any nearer ones. To keep himself in mind 
of the shortness of earthly grandeur, this pope always kept a 
coffin in his room, and drank out of a cup shaped like a skull. 

The side of the Piazza Colonna, which faces the Corso, is 
occupied by the French Military Club. On its other sides 
are the Piombino and Ferrajuoli palaces, of no interest. In 
the centre is placed the fine Column^ which was found on the 
Monte Citorio in 1709, having been originally erected by 
the senate -and people a.d. 174, to the Emperor Marcus 
Aurelius Antoninus (adopted son of the Emperor Hadrian, — 
husband of his niece, Annia Faustina, — father of the Emperor 
Commodus). It is surrounded by bas-reliefs, representing 
the conquest of the Marcomanni. One of these has long 
been an especial object of interest, from being supposed to 
represent a divinity (Jupiter ? ) sending rain to the troops, 
in answer to the prayers of a Christian legion from Mity- 
lene. Eusebius gives the story, stating that the piety of 
these Christians induced the emperor to ask their prayers in 
his necessity, and a letter in Justin Martyr (of which the 
authenticity is much doubted), in which Aurelius allows the 
fact, is produced in proof The statue of St. Paul on the 

• It is more worth while to visit the Palazzo Chigi at Lariccia, near Albano, which 
retains its stamped leather hangings, and much of its old furniture. Here may be 
seen, assembled in one room, the portraits of the twelve nieces of Alexander VII., 
who were so enchanted when their uncle was made pope, that they all took the veil 
immediately to please him I 



38 WALKS IN ROME. 

top of the column was erected by Sixtus V. ; the pedestal 
also is modern. 

Behind the Piazza Colonna is the Piazza Monte Citorio, 
containing an Obelisk which was discovered in broken frag- 
ments near the Church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina. It was 
repaired with pieces of the column of Antoninus Pius^ the 
pedestal of which may still be seen in the Vatican garden. 
Its hieroglyphics are very perfect and valuable, and show 
that it was erected more than 600 years before Christ, 
in honour of Psammeticus I. It was brought from Helio- 
pohs by Augustus, and erected by him in the Campus 
Martins, where it received the name of Obeliscus Solaris, 
from being made to act as a sun-dial. 

" Ei, qui est in campo, divus Augustus addidit mirabilem usum ad de- 
prehendendas solis umbras, dierumque ac noctium ita magnitudines, 
strato lapide ad magnitudinem obelisci, cui par fieret umbra, brumse 
confectae die, sexta hora ; paulatimque per regulas (quK sunt ex die 
exclusae) singulis diebus decresceret ac rursus augesceret : digna cognitu 
res et ingenio foecundo. Manilius mathematicus apici auratam pilam 
addidit, cujus umbra vertice colligeretur in se ipsa alias enormiter jacu- 
lante apice ratione (ut ferunt) a capite hominis intellecta, Hsec obser- 
vatio triginta jam fere annos non congruit, sive solis ipsius dissono 
cursu, et coeli aliqua ratione mutato, sive universa tellure a centre sue 
aliquid emota ut cleprehendi et in aliis locis accipio : sive urbis tremor- 
ibus ibi tantum gnomone intorto, sive inundationibus Tiberis sedi- 
rcento molis facto : quanquam ad altitudinem impositi oneris in terram 
quoque dicantur acta fundamenta." — Flin. Nat, Hist. lib. xxxiv. 14. 

The Palace of the Mo?ite Citorio (designed by Bernini) 
contains public offices connected with police, passports, &c. 
On the opposite side of the piazza are the Railway and 
Telegraph Offices. 

Proceeding up the Corso, the Via di Pietra (right) leads 
into the small Piazza di Pietra, one side of which is occu- 
pied by the eleven remaining columns of the Temple of 
Neptime, built up by Innocent XII. into the walls of the 
modern Custom-house. It is worth while to enter the court- 
yard in order to look back and observe the immense 
masses of stone above the entrance, part of the ancient 
temple, — which are here uncovered. 

Close to this, behind the Palazzo Cini, in the Piazza 
Orfanelli, is the Teatro Capranica, occupying part of a 
palace of ^. 1350, with gothic windows. The opposite 
church, Sta. Maria i?i Aquiro, recalls by its name the 
column of the Equiria, celebrated in ancient annals as the 



TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE. 39 

place where certain games and horse races, instituted by 
Romulus, were celebrated. Ovid describes them in his 
Fasti. The church was founded c. 400, but was re-built 
under Francesco da Volterra in 1590. 

A small increase of width in the Corso is now dignified by 
the name of the Piazza Sciarra. The street which turns off 
hence, under an arch (Via de Muratte, on the left), leads 
to the Foimtain of Trevi, erected in 1735 by Niccolo Salvi 
for Clement XII. The statue of Neptune is by Pietro 
Bracci. 

" The fountain of Trevi draws its precious water from a source 
far beyond the walls, whence it flows hitherward through old sub- 
teiTanean aqueducts, and sparkles forth as pure as the virgin who first 
led Agrippa to its well-springs by her father's door. In the design of 
the fountain, some sculptor of Bernini's school has gone absolutely mad, 
in marble. It is a great palace-front, with niches and many bas reliefs, 
out of which looks Agrippa's legendary virgin, and several of the alle- 
goric sisterhood ; while at the base appears Neptune with his flounder- 
ing steeds and tritons blowing their horns about him, and twenty other 
artificial fantasies, which the calm moonlight soothes into better taste 
than is native to them. And, after all, it is as magnificent a piece of 
work as ever human skill contrived. At the foot of the palatial fagade, 
is strown, with careful art and ordered regularity, a broad and broken 
heap of massive rock, looking as if it may have lain there since the 
deluge. Over a central precipice falls the water, in a semicircular 
cascade ; and from a hundred crevices, on all sides, snowy jets gush up, 
and streams spout out of the mouths and nostrils of stone monsters, 
and fall in glistening drops ; while other rivulets, that have run wild, 
come leaping from one rude step to another, over stones that are mossy, 
shining and green with sedge, because, in a century of their wild play, 
nature has adopted the fountain of Trevi, with all its elaborate devices, 
for her own. Finally the water, tumlDling, sparkling, and dashing 
with joyous haste and never ceasing murmur, pours itself into a great 
marble basin and reservoir, and fills it with a quivering tide ; on which 
is seen, continually, a snowy semi-circle of momentary foam from the 
principal cascade, as well as a multitude of snow-points from smaller 
jets. The basin occupies the whole breadth of the piazza, whence 
flights of steps descend to its border. A boat might float, and make 
mimic voyages, on this artificial lake. 

"In the daytime there is hardly a livelier scene in Rome than the 
neighbourhood of the fountain of Trevi ; for the piazza is then filled 
with stalls of vegetable and fruit dealers, chestnut-roasters, cigar- 
vendors, and other people whose petty and wandering traffic is trans- 
acted in the open air. It is likewise thronged with idlers, lounging 
over the iron railing, and with forestieri, who come hither to see the 
famous fountain. Here, also, are men with buckets, urchins with cans, 
and maidens (a picture as old as the i)atnarchal times) bearing their 
pitchers upon their heads. For the water of Trevi is in request, far 
and wide, as the most refreshing draught for feverish lips, the pica* 



40 WALKS IiV ROME. 

santest to mingle with wine, and the wholesomest to drink in its 
native purity, that can anyv.'here be found. But, at midnight, the 
piazza is a soHtude ; and it is a delight to behold this untameable water, 
sporting by itself in the moonshine, and compelling all the elaborate 
trivialities of art to assume a natural aspect, in accordance with its own 
powerful simplicity. Tradition goes, that a parting draught at the 
fountain of Trevi ensures a traveller's return to Rome, whatever ob- 
stacles and improbabilities may seem to beset him." — Haxvthorne. 

"Le bas-relief, place au-dessus de cette fontaine, represente la jeune 
fille indiquant la source precieuse, comme dans I'antiquite une peniture 
representait le meme evenement dans une chapelle construite au lieu oil 
il s'etait passe." — Ampere, Evip. i. 264. 

In this piazza is the rather handsome front of Sta. Maria 
in Trivia^ formerly Sta. Maria in Fornica, erected by Car- 
dinal Mazarin, on the site of an older church built by 
Belisarius — as is told by an inscription : — 

" Hanc vir patricius Belisarius urbis amicus 
Ob culpae veniam condidit ecclesiam. 
Hanc, idcirco, pedem qui sacram ponis in asdem 
Ut miseretur eum ssepe precare Deum." 

The fault which Belisarius wished to expiate, was the exile 
of Pope Sylverius (a.d. 536), who was starved to death in 
the island of Ponza. The crypt of the present building, 
being the parish church of the Quirinal, contains the 
entrails of twenty popes (removed for embalmment) — from 
Sixtus V. to Pius VIII. — who died in the Quirinal Palace ! 

The little church near the opposite corner of the piazza 
is that of The Crocijeri, and is still (1870) served by the 
Venerable Don Giovanni Merlini, Father General of the 
Order of the Precious Blood, and the personal friend of its 
founder, Gaspare del Buffalo. 

The Fountain of Trevi occupies one end of the gigantic 
Palazzo Foli, which contains the English consulate. At 
'the other end is the shop of the famous jeweller, Castellani, 
well worth visiting, for the sake of its beautiful collection of 
Etruscan designs, both in jewellery and in larger vv^orks of 
art. 

"Castellani est I'homme qui a ressuscite la bijouterie romaine. Son 
escalier, tapisse d'inscriptions et de bas-reliefs antiques, fait croire que 
nous entrons dans un musee. Un jeune marchand aussi erudit que 
les archeologues fait voir une collection de bijoux anciens de toutes les 
epoques, depuis les origines de I'EUurie jusqu'au siecle de Constantin. 
C'est la source oil Castellani puise les elements d'un art nouveau qui 
detronera avant dix ans la pacotille du Palais-Royal."— -^<^(?z^/, Rome 
Contemporaine. 

*'C'est en s'inspirant desparures retrouvees dans les tombesde I'Etrurie, 



PALAZZO SCI ARE A. /i 

des bracelets et des colliers dont se paraient les femmes etrusques et 
sabines, que M. Castellani, guide par le gout savant et ingenieux d'un 
homme qui porte dignement I'ancien nom de Caetani, a introduit dans 
la bijouterie un style a la fois classique et nouveau. Parmi les artistes 
les plus originaux de Rome sont certainement les orfevres Castellani et 
D. Miguele Caetani, due de .Sermoneta." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. 388. 

The Palazzo Sciarra (on left of the Corso), built in 1603 
by Labacco, contains a gallery of pictures, shown on Satur- 
days from 10 to 3. The six celebrated gems of this gallery 
are marked with an asterisk. We may notice : — 

-[st Room. — 

5. Death of St. John Baptist : Valentin, 
13. Holy Family : Innocenza da I??tola. 
15. Rome Triumphant : Valentin. 

20. Madonna : Titian. 

23. Sta. Francesca Romana : Carlo Veneziano, 

2nd Roo77i. — 

1 7. Flight into Eg)'pt : Claude Lorraiti. 

18. Sunset: Claude Lorrain. 

2,rd Room. — 

6. Holy Family : Francia. 
9. Boar Hunt : Garofalo. 

II. Holy Family : Andrea del Sarto. 

i"]. A Monk led by an Angel to the Heavenly Spheres : Gaudenzio 

Ferrari. 
26. The Vestal Claudia drawing a boat with the statue of Ceres up 

the Tiber : Garofalo. 
29. Tavern Scene : Teniers. 

33. The Fornarina : Copy of Raphael by Giulio Rornano. 
36. Holy Family with Angels: Lucas Cranach, 1504. 

^th Room. — 

I. Holy Family : Fra Bartolofneo.^ 

**The glow and freshness of colouring in this admirable painting, the 
softness of the skin, the beauty and sweetness of the expression, the look 
with which the mother's eyes are bent upon the baby she holds in 
her arms, and the innocent fondness with which the other child gazes 
up in her face, are worthy of the painter whose works Raphael delighted 
to study, and from which, in a great measure, he formed his principles 
of colouring." — Eaton'' s Rome. 

5. St. John the Evangelist : Guercino. 

6. The Violin Player (Andrea Marone ?) : Raphael.^ 

" The Violin Player is a youth holding the bow of a violin and a 
laurel wreath in his hand, and looking at the spectators over his 
shoulder. The expression of his countenance is sensible and decided, 
and betokens a character alive to the impressions of sense, yet severe. 
The execution is excellent,— inscribed with the date 15 18." — Kugler. 

7- St. Mark : Guercino. 

8. Daughter of Herodias : Guercino. 



42 WALKS IN ROME. 

12, Conjugal Love : Agostino Caracci. 

1 6. The Gamblers : Caravaggio.^ 

"This is a masterpiece of the painter. A sharper is playing at cards 
•with a youth of family and fortune, whom his confederate, while pre- 
tending to be looking on, is assisting to cheat. The subject will remind 
you of the Flemish School, but this painting bears no resemblance to it. 
Here is no farce, no caricature. Character was never more strongly 
marked, nor a tale more inimitably told. It is life itself, and you almost 
forget it is a picture, and expect to see the game go on. The colouring 
is beyond all praise." — Eaton'' s Rome. 

17. Modesty and Vanity : Leonardo da Vinci* 

"One of Leonardo's most beautiful pictures is in Rome, in the 
Sciarra Palace — two female half-figures of Modesty and Vanity. The 
former, with a veil over her head, is a particularly pleasing, noble 
profile, with a clear, open expression ; she beckons to her sister, who 
stands fronting the spectator, beautifully arrayed, and with a sweet 
seducing smile. This picture is remarkably powerful in colouring, and 
wonderfully finished, but unfortunately has become rather dark in the 
shadows ." — Kugler. 

19. Magdalen : Gtiido Rem. 

24. Family Portrait : Titian. 

25. Portrait : Bronzino. 

26. St. Sebastian : Penigino. 
29. Bella Donna : Titian."^ 

Sometimes supposed to represent Donna Laura Eustachio, the peasant 
Duchess of Alphonso L of Ferrara. 

"When Titian or Tintoret look at a human being, they see at a 
glance the whole of its nature, outside and in ; all that it has of form, 
of colour, of passion, or of thought ; saintliness and loveliness ; fleshly 
power, and spiritual power ; grace, or strength, or softness, or whatso- 
ever other quality, those men will see to the full, and so paint, that, 
when narrower people come to look at what they have done, every one 
may, if he chooses, find his own special pleasure in the work. The 
sensualist will find sensuality in Titian ; the thinker will find thought ; 
the saint, sanctity ; the colourist, colour ; the anatomist, form ; and yet 
the picture will never be a popular one in the full sense, for none of 
these narrower people will find their special taste so alone consulted, as 
that the (jualities which would ensure their gratification shall be sifted 
or separated from others ; they are checked by the presence of the other 

qualities, which ensure the gratification of other men Only 

there is a strange undercurrent of everlasting murmur about the name of 
Titian, which means the deep consent of all great men that he is greater 
than they." — Ruskin^s Two Paths, Iwct. 2. 

31. Death of the Virgin : Albert Durer. 

32. Maddalena della Radice : Gnido /vV;«'.* 

" Tlie two Magdalens by Guido are almost duplicates, and yet one 
is incomparably superior to the other. She is reclining on a rock, and 
her tearful and uj:)lifted eyes, the whole of her countenance and attitude, 
speak tlie overwhelming sorrow that ])enetrates her soul. Her face 
might charm the heart of a stoic ; and the contrast of her youth and 
enchanting loveliness, with the abandonment of grief, the resignation of 



THE CARAVITA, 43 

all earthly hope, and the entire devotion of herself to penaence and 
heaven, is most affecting." — Eatoii^s Rome. 

Near the Piazza Sciarra, the Corso (as Via Flaminia) 
was formerly spanned by the Arch of Claudius, removed in 
1527. Some reliefs from this arch are preserved in the 
portico of the Villa Borghese, though much mutilated 
and of fine workmanship. The inscription, which com- 
memorated the erection of the arch in honour of the con- 
quest of Britain, is preserved in the courtyard of the Bar- 
berini Palace. 

On the right of the Piazza Sciarra is the Via della Caravita, 
containing the small but popular Church of the Caravita,^ 
used for the pecuHar rehgious exercises of the Jesuits, espe- 
cially for their terrible Lenten " flagellation " services, which 
are one of the most extraordinary sights afforded by Cathohc 
Rome. 

" The ceremony of pious whippings, one of the penances of the con- 
vents, still takes place at the time of vespers in the oratory of the Padre 
Caravita and in another church in Rome. It is preceded by a short 
exhortation, during which a bell rings, and whips, that is, strings of 
knotted whipcord, are distributed quietly amongst such of the audience 
as are on their knees in the nave. On a second bell, the candles are 
extinguished — a loud voice issues from the altar, which pours forth an 
exhortation to think of unconfessed, or unrepented, or unforgiven crimes. 
This continues a sufficient time to allow the kneelers to strip off their 
upper garments ; the tone of the preacher is raised more loudly at each 
word, and he vehemently exhorts his hearers to recollect that Christ and 
the martyrs suffered much more than whipping, ' Show, then, your 
penitence — show your sense of Christ's sacrifice — show it with the whip.' 
The flagellation begins. The darkness, the tumultuous sound of blows 
in every direction — ' Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us ! ' bursting out at 
intervals, — the persuasion that you are surrounded by atrocious culprits 
a-id maniacs, who know of an absolution for every crime— so far from 
exciting a smile, fixes you to the spot in a trance of restless horror, pro • 
ionged beyond bearing. The scourging continues ten or fifteen 
m i nut es . " — Lord Broughton. 

" Each man on entering the church was supplied with a scourge. 
After a short interval the doors were barred, the lights extinguished ; 
and from praying, the congregation proceeded to groaning, crying, and 
finally, being worked up into a kind of ecstatic fury, applied the scourge 
to their uncovered shoulders without mercy." — Whitesidis Italy in the 
Nineteenth Century. 

Beyond the Caravita is the Church of S. Ignazio, built by 
Cardinal Ludovisi. The fagade, of 1685, is by Algardi. 
It contains the tomb of Gregory XIV. (Nicolo Sfondrali, 

• So called from the Jesuit father of that name, who lived in the 17th centurx . 

E 



44 WALKS IN ROME. 

1590—91), and that of S. Ludovico Gonzaga, both sculp- 
tured by Le Gros. 

"Ill S. Ignazio is the chapel of San Luigi Gonzaga, on whom not a 
few of the young Roman damsels look with something of the same kind 
of admiration as did Clytie on Apollo, whom he and St. Sebastian, 
those two young, beautiful, graceful saints, very fairly i^epresent in 
Christian mythology. His festa falls in June, and then his altar is 
embosomed in flowers, arranged with exquisite taste ; and a pile of 
letters may be seen at its foot, written to the saint by young men and 
maidens, and directed to Paradiso. They are supposed to be burnt 
unread, except by San Luigi, who must find singular petitions in these 
pretty little missives, tied up now with a green ribbon, expressive of 
hope, now with a red one, emblematic of love, or whatever other 
significant colour the writer may prefer," — Mademoiselle Mori. 

The frescoes on the roof and tribune are by the Padre 
Pozzi. 

"Amid the many distinguished men whom the Jesuits «;ent r-.o;:: to 
every region of the world, I cannot recollect the name of a single artist 
unless it be the Father Pozzi, renowned fov his skill in perspective, and 
who used his skill less as an artist than a conjuror, to produce such 
illusions as make the vulgar stare ; to make the impalpable to the grasp 
appear as palpable to the vision ; the near seem distant, the distant near ; 
the unreal, real ; to cheat the eye ; to dazzle the sense ;• — all this 
has Father Pozzi most cunningly achieved in the Gesii and the Sant' 
Ignazio at Rome ; but nothing more, and nothing better than this. I 
wearied of his altar-pieces and of his wonderful roofs which pretend to 
be no roofs at all. Scheme, tricks, and deceptions in art should all be 
kept for the theatre. It appeared to me nothing less than profane to 
introduce shavis into the temples of God." — Mrs. Jameson. 

On the left of the Corso — opposite the handsome Palazzo 
Simonetti — is the C/mrch of S. Mai-ccUo (Pope, 308 — 10), 
containing some interesting modern monuments. Among 
them are those of Pierre Gilles, the traveller (ob. 1555), and 
of the English Cardinal Weld. Here, also, Cardinal Gon- 
salvi, the famous and liberal minister of Pius VII., is buried 
in the same tomb with his beloved younger brother, the 
Marchese Andrea Gonsalvi. Their monument, by Rinaldi, 
tells that here repose the bodies of two brothers — 

" Qui cum singulari amore dum vivebant 
Se mutuo dilexissent 
Corpora etiam sua 
Una eademque urna condi voluere." 

Here are the masterpieces which made the reputation 
of Pierino del Vaga (1501 — 1547). In the chapel of t^e 
Virgin are the cherubs, whose graceful movements and 
exquisite flesh-tints Vasari declares to have been unsur* 



COLLEGIO ROMANO. 45 

passed by any artist in fresco. In the chapel of the Crucifix 
is the Creation of Eve, which is even more beautiful. 

" The perfectly beautiful figure of the naked Adam is seen lying, 
overpowered by sleep, while Eve, filled with life, and with folded hands, 
rises to receive the blessing of her Maker, — a most grand and solemn 
figure standing erect in heavy drapery." — Vasari, iv. 

This church is said to occupy the site of a house of the 
Christian matron Lucina, in which Marcellus died of 
wounds incurred in attempting to settle a quarrel among his 
Christian followers. It was in front of it that the body of 
the tribune Rienzi, after his murder on the Capitol steps, 
was hung up by the feet for two days as a mark for the 
rabble to throw stones at. 

The next street to the right leads to the Collegio Romano, 
founded by St. Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia (a descend- 
ant of Pope Alexander VI.), who, after a youth spent 
amid the splendours of the court of Madrid, retired to Rome 
in 1550, in the time of Julius III., and became the successor 
of Ignatius Loyola as general of the Jesuits. The buildings 
were erected, as we now see them, by Ammanati, in 1582, 
for Gregory XIII. The college is entirely under the super- 
intendence of the Jesuits. The library is large and valuable. 
The Kircherian Museum (shown to gentlemen from ten to 
eleven on Sundays) is worth visiting. It contains a number 
of antiquities, illustrative of Roman and Etruscan customs, 
and many beautiful ancient bronzes and vases. The most 
important object is the " Cista Mistica," a bronze vase and 
cover, which was given as a prize to successful gladiators, 
and which was originally fitted up with everything useful for 
their profession. 

The Observatory of the Collegio Romano has obtained a 
European reputation from the important astronomical re- 
searches of its director, the Padre Secchi. 

The Collegio Romano iias produced eight popes — Urban 
VIII., Innocent X., Clement IX., Clement X., Innocent 
XII., Clement XL, Innocent XIIL, and Clement XII. 
Among its other pupils have been S. Camillo de Lellis, 
the Blessed Leonardo di Porto-Maurizio, the Venerable 
Pietro Berna, and others. 

" Ignace, Fran9ois Borgia, ont passe par ici. Leur souvenir plane, 
comme un encouragement et une benediction, sur ces salles ou ils pre- 
siderent aux etudes, sur ces chaires ou peut-etre retentit leur parole, 



40 WALKS IN ROME. 

sur ces niodesles cellules qu'ils out habitees. A la fin du seizieine siecle, 
les eleves du college Romain perdirent un de leurs condisciples que 
sa douce amenite et ses vertus angeliqucs avaient rendu I'objet d'un 
afifectueux respect. Ce jeune honime avait ete page de Philippe II. ; 
il etait allie aux maisons royales d'Autriche, de Bourbon et de Lorraine. 
Mais au milieu de ces illusions d'une grande vie, sous ce brillanl 
costume de cour qui semblait lui promettre honneurs et fortune, il ne 
voyait jamais que la pieuse figure de sa mere agenouillee au pied des 
autels, et priant pour lui. A peine age de seize ans, il s'echappe dc 
Madrid, il vient frapper a la porte du college Romain, et demande 
place, au dortoir et a I'etude, pour Louis Gonzague, fils du comte de 
Castiglione. Pendant sept ans, Louis donna dans cette maison le 
touchant exemple d'une vie celeste ; puis ses jours dklinerent, comme 
parle I'Ecriture ; il avait assez vecu." — Gouriierie, Rome Chretienjie, 
il. 211. 

We now reach (on right) the Church of Sta. Maria in 
Via Lata, which was founded by Sergius I,, in the eighth 
century, but twice rebuilt, the second time under Alexander 
VII., in 1662, when the facade was added by Pietro da 
Cortona. 

In this church " they still show a little chapel in which, as hath beer 
handed down from the first ages, St. Luke the Evangelist wrote, ana 
painted the effigy of the Virgin Mother of God." — See Jainesoii's Sacfed 
Art, p. 155. 

The subterranean church is shown as the actual house in 
which St. Paul lodged when he was in Rome. 

" And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners 
to the captain of the guard : but Paul was suffered to dwell by himselt 
with a soldier that kept him." 

"And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him 
into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of 
God, persuading them concerning Jesiis, both out of the law of Moses, 
and out of the prophets, from morning till evening." . . . 

" And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and 
received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, 
and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with 
all confidence, no man forbidding him." — Acts xxviii. 16, 23, 30, 31. 

" St. Paul after his arrival at Rome, having made his usual effort, in 
the first plaqe, for the salvation of his own countrymen, and as usual, 
having found it vain, turned to the Gentiles, and during two whole 
years, in which he was a ]:)risoner, received all that came to him, preach- 
ing the kingdom of God. It was thus that God overruled his im- 
prisonment for the furtherance of the gospel, so that his bonds in 
Christ were manifest in the palace, and in all other places, and 
many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by his bonds, 
were much more bold to speak the word without fear. Even in 
the palace of Nero, the most noxious atmosphere, as we should have 
conchided, for the growth of divine truth, his bonds were manifest, 
the Lord Jesus was preached, and, more than this, was received to the 



STA, MARIA IN VIA LATA. 47 

saving of many souls ; for we find the Apostle writing to his Phil- 
ippian converts : * All the saints salute you, chiefly they which are 
of Caesar's household.' The whole Church of Christ has abundant 
reason to bless God for the dispensation which, during the most matured 
period of St. Paul's Christian life, detained him a close prisoner in the 
imperial city. Had he, to the end of his course, been at large, occu- 
pied, as he had long been, 'in labours most abundant,' he Avould, 
humanly speaking, never have found time to pen those epistles which 
are among the most blessed portion of the Church's inheritance. It 
was from \vithin the walls of a prison, probably chained hand to hand 
to the soldier who kept him, that St. Paul indited the Epistles to the 
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews." — Blunt'' s Lectures 
on St. Paul. 

"In writing to Philemon, Paul chooses to speak of himself as the 
captive of Jesus Christ. Yet he went whither he would, and Avas free 
to receive those who came to him. It is interesting to remember amid 
these solemn vaults, the different events of St. Paul's apostolate, during 
the two years that he lived here. It was here that he converted 
Onesimus, that he received the presents of the Philippians, brought by 
Epaphroditus ; it was hence that he wrote to Philemon, to Titus, to the 
inhabitants of Philippi and of Colosse ; it was here that he preached 
devotion to the cross with that glowing eagerness, with that startling 
eloquence, which gained fresh power from contest and which inspiration 
rendered sublime. 

" Peter addressed himself to the Circumcised ; Paul to the Gentiles,* — 
to their silence that he might confound it, to their reason that he might 
humble it. Had he not already converted the proconsul Sergius Paulus 
and Dionysius the Areopagite ? At Rome his word is equally powerful, 
and among the courtiers of Nero, perhaps even amongst his relations, are 
those who yield to the power of God, who reveals himself in each of 
the teachmgs of his servant. t Around the Apostle his eager disciples 
group themselves — Onesiphorus of Ephesus, who was not ashamed of 
his chain ; % Epaphras of Colosse, who was captive with him, concap- 
tiviis vieus ; \ Timothy, who was one with his master in a holy union of 
every thought, and who Avas attached to him like a son, sicut patri filius ;\ 
Hermas, Aristarchus, Marcus, Demas — and Luke the physician, the 
faithful companion of the Apostle, his well-beloved disciple — ' Lucas 
medicus carissimus.' " — From Gournene, Pome Chretienne. 

'* I honour Rome for this reason ; for though I could celebrate her 
praises on many other accounts — for her greatness, for her beauty, for 
her power, for her Avealth, and for her warlike exploits, — yet, passing 
over all these things, I glorify her on this account, that Paul in his life- 
time wrote to the Romans, and loved them, and Avas present Avith and 
conversed Avith them, and ended his life amongst them. Wherefore the 
city is on this account renoAvned more than on all others — on this 
account I admire her, not on account of her gold, her columns, or her 
other splendid decorations." — St. John Chrysostom, Homily on the Ep. 
to the Romans. 

"The Roman Jcavs expressed a Avish to hear from St. Paul himself a 
Statement of his religious sentiments, adding that the Christian sect Avas 

• Galat. ii. 7. t Philipp. iv. 22. t 2 Timothj' i. 16. 

§ Philemon 23. |j Philipp. ii. 22. 



43 WALKS IN ROME. 

everywhere spoken against. ... A day was fixed for the meeting 
at his private lodging. 

" The Jews came in great numbers at the appointed time. Then fol- 
lowed an impressive scene, like that at Troas (Acts xxi. )— the Apostle 
pleading long and earnestly, — bearing testimony concerning the kingdom 
of God, — and endeavouring to persuade them by arguments drawn from 
their own Scriptures, — 'from morning till evening.' The result was a divi- 
sion among the auditors — ' not peace, but a sword.' — the division which 
has resulted ever since, when the Truth of God has encountered, side 
by side, earnest conviction with worldly indifference, honest investiga- 
tion with bigoted prejudice, trustful faith with the pride of scepticism. 
After a long and stormy discussion, the unbelieving portion departed ; 
but not until St. Paul had warned them, in one last address, that they 
were bringing upon themselves that awful doom of judicial blindness, 
which was denounced in their own Scriptures against obstinate un- 
believers ; that the salvation which they rejected would be withdrawn 
from them, and the inheritance they renounced would be given to the 
Gentiles. The sentence with which he gave emphasis to this solemn 
warning was that passage in Isaiah, which recurring thus with solemn 
force at the very close of the Apostolic history, seems to bring very 
strikingly together the Old Dispensation and the New, and to connect 
the ministry of Our Lord with that of His Apostles: — 'Go unto this 
people and say : Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and 
seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive : for the heart of this people is 
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they 
closed ; lest they shovUd see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 
and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should 
heal them.' 

". . . During the long delay of his trial St. Paul was not 
reduced, as he had been at Ccesarea, to a forced inactivity. On the 
contrary, he was permitted the freest intercourse with his friends, and 
was allowed to reside in a house of sufficient size to accommodate the 
congregation which flocked together to listen to his teaching. The 
freest scope was given to his labours, consistent with the military 
custody under which he was placed. We are told, in language pecu- 
liarly emphatic, that his preaching was subjected to no restraint what- 
ever. And that which seemed at first to impede, must really have 
deepened the impression of his eloquence ; for who could see with- 
out emotion that venerable form subjected l)y iron links to the coarse 
control of the soldier who stood beside him ? how often must the 
tears of the assembly have been called forth by the upraising of that 
fettered hand, and the clanking of the chain which checked its energetic 
action. 

" We shall see hereafter that these labours of the imprisoned Con- 
fessor were not fruitless ; in his own words, he ' begot many children in 
his chains.' Meanwhile, he had a wider sphere of action than even the 
metropolis of the world. Not only ' the crowd wluch pressed upon him 
daily,' but also 'the care of all the churches' demanded his constant 
vigilance and exertion. . . . 'I'o enable him to maintain this super- 
intendence, he manifestly needed many faithful messengers ; men who 
(as he says of one of them) ' rendered him profitable service *; and by 
some of whom he seems to have been constantly accompanied, whereso- 



STA. MARIA IN VIA LATA. 49 

ever he went. Accordingly we find him, during this Roman imprison- 
ment, surrounded by many of his oldest and most valued attendants. 
Luke, his fellow-traveller, remained with him during his bondage ; 
Timotheus, his beloved son in the faith, ministered to him at Rome, as 
he had done in Asia, in Macedonia, and in Achaia. Tychicus, who 
had formerly borne him company from Corinth to Ephesus, is now at 
hand to carry his letters to the shores which they had visited together. 
But there are two names amongst his Roman companions which excite 
a peculiar interest, though from opposite reasons, — the names of Demas 
and of Mark. The latter, when last we heard of him, was the unhappy 
cause of the separation of Barnabas and Paul. He was rejected by 
Paul, as unworthy to attend him, because he had previously abandoned 
the work of the Gospel out of timidity or indolence. It is delightful to 
find him now ministenng obediently to the very Apostle who had then 
repudiated his services ; still more to know that he persevered in this 
fidelity even to the end, and was sent for by St. Paul to cheer his dying 
hours. Demas, on the other hand, is now a faithful ' fellow-labourer ' 
of the Apostle ; but in a few years we shall find that he had ' forsaken * 
him, having ' loved this present world.' 

"Amongst the rest of St. Paul's companions at this time, there were 
two whom he distinguishes by the honourable title of his ' fellow- 
prisoners.' One of these is Aristarchus, the other Epaphras. With 
regard to the former, we know that he was a Macedonian of Thessa- 
lonica, one of 'Paul's companions in travel,' whose life was endangered 
by the mob at Ephesus, and who embarked with St. Paul at Csesarea 
when he set sail for Rome. The other, Epaphras, was a Colossian, 
who must not be identified with the Philippian Epaphroditus, another 
of St. Paul's fellow-labourers during this time. It is not easy to say in 
what exact sense these two disciples were peculiarly felloiv- prisoners of 
St, Paul. Perhaps it only implies that they dwelt in his house, which 
was also his prison. 

"But of all the disciples now ministenng to St. Paul at Rome, none 
has a greater interest than the fugitive Asiatic slave Onesimus. He 
belonged to a Christian named Philemon, a member of the Colossian 
Church. But he had robbed his master, and fled from Colosse, and at 
last found his way to Rome. Here he Avas converted to the faith of 
Christ, and had confessed to St. Paul his sins against his master.*' — 
Co7iybea7'e and Hoiuson, Life of St. Paul. 

A fountain in the crypt is shown, as having miraculously 
sprung up in answer to the prayers of St. Paul, that he 
might have wherewithal to baptize his disciples. At the 
end of the crypt are some large blocks of peperino, said 
to be remains of the arch erected by the senate in honour 
of the Emperor Gordian III., and destroyed by Inno- 
cent VIII. 

Far along the right side of the Corso now extends the 
facade of the immense Palazzo Doria, built by Valvasori 
(the front towards the Collegio Romano being by Pietro da 
Cortona, and that towards the Piazza Venezia by Amati). 



50 WALKS IN ROME. 

Entering the courtyard, one must turn left to reach the 
PicUwe Gallery (which is open on Tuesdays and Fridays, 
from ten till two) — a vast collection, which contains some 
grand portraits and a i^sN other fine paintings. 

The i^^ Room entered is a great hall — to which pictures 
are removed for copying. It contains four fine sarcophagi, 
with reliefs of the Hunt of Meleager, the Story of Marsyas, 
Endymion and Diana, and a Bacchic procession. Of two 
ancient circular altars, one serves as the pedestal of a 
bearded Dionysus. The pictures are chiefly landscapes, 
of the school of Poussin and Salvator Rosa, — that of the 
Deluge is by Ippolito Scarsellino. 

2nd Room. — In the centre a Centaur (restored), of basalt 
and rosso-antico. On either side groups of boys playing. 

Pictures : — 

4. Caritas Romana : Valentin. 

5. Circumcision : Giov. Belliiii ? 

7. Madonna and Saints : Basaiti. 

15. Temptations of St. Anthony: Sctiola di Mantegna. 
19. St. John in the Desert : Gnercino ? 
35 . Birth of St. John : Vittore Pisanello. 
21. Spozalizio : V. Pisanello. 

23. St. Sylvester before Maximin II. : Pesellino. 

24. Madonna and Child : F. Fraftcia ? 

28. Annunciation : Fil. Lippi. 

29. St. Sylvester and the Dragon : Pesellino (see the account of 

Sta. Maria Liberatrice). 
33. St. Agnes on the burning pile : Guercino. 
37. Magdalen : Copy of the Tifiayi in the Pitti Palace. 

4th Room. — 

A bust of Innocent X. (with whose ill-acquired wealth this 
palace was built) in rosso-antico, with a bronze head : 
Bernini. 

^th Room. — 

17. The Money-changers : Quentin Matsys. 

25. St. Joseph : Guercino. 

In the centre, a group of Jacob wrestling with the Angel : 
School of Bernini. 

6th Room. — 

8. Portrait of Olympia Maldacchini, the sister-in-law of Inno- 

cent X., who ruled Rome in his time. 
13. Madonna : Carlo Maratta. 

30. Sketch of a Boy : Incognito. 

From this room we enter a small cabinet, hung with pic- 
tures of Breughel and FiammingOy and containing a bust by 



PALAZZO DORIA. 51 

Algardi, of Olympia Maldacchini-Pamfili, who built the Villa 
Doria Pamfili for her son. 

"jth Room. — • 

8. Belisarius in the desert : Salvafor Rosa. 

19. Slaughter of the Innocents : Mazzolino. 

We now enter the Galleries — ^which begin towards the 
left— 

1st Gallery. — 

2. Holy Family in glory, and two Franciscan Saints adoring: 

Garofalo. 

3. Magdalen : Annibale CaraccL 

8, Two Heads : Quentin Matsys. 

9. Holy Family : Sassoferrato. 

10. Story of the conversion of S. Eustachio (see the description 
of his church) : School of Albert Dure}'. 

14. A Portrait : Titian. 

15. Holy Family : Andrea del Sarto. 

20. The Three Ages of Man : Titian.* 

21. Return of the Prodigal Son: Guejxino. 

25. Landscape with the Flight into Egypt : Claude Lorraine. 

26. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth : Garofalo. 
38. Copy of the " Nozze Aldobrandini : " Foussin. 
45. Madonna : Guido Reni. 

50. Holy Family : Giulio Romano^ from Raphael. 

2nd Gallery. — 

6. Madonna : Fran. Francia. 
14. "Bartolo and Baldo : " Raphael.* 
17, Portrait: Titiaii. 
"Zi. Poiirait of a Widow : Vandyke. 

24. Three Heads, called Calvin, Luther, and Catherine : Giorgione. 
26. Sacrifice of Isaac : Titiaii. 
33. Portrait of a Pamfili : Vandyke. 
40. Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist : Pordenone. 

A grand bust of Andrew Doria. 
50. "The Confessor: " Rubens. 

53. Joanna of Arragon : School of Leonai'do da Vinci.* 
56. Magdalene: School of Titian. 
61. Adoration of the Infant Jesus : Gio. Batt. Benvenuti {^ V Or' 

tolano''). 
66. Holy Family : Ga?'ofalo. 

69. Glory crowning Virtue (a sketch) : Correggio. 
80. Portrait of Titian and his Wife : Titian. 

Also a number of pictures of the Creation : Breughel. 

^rd Gallery. — 

I, 6, 28, 34. Landscapes (with figures introduced) : Ann. 

Ca7'acci. 
5. Landscape, with Mercury stealing cattle : Claude Lorraine. 
xo. Titian's Wife : Titian. 



52 WALKS IN ROME. 

11. "Niccolaus Macchiavellus Historian Scriptor : " Bi'onzmo. 

12. " The Mill : " Claude Lorraine.'^ 

*' The foreground of the picture of ' the Mill ' is a piece of very lovely 
and perfect forest scenerj', with a dance of peasants by a brook-side ; 
quite enough subject to form, in the hands of a master, an impressive 
and complete picture. On the other side of the brook, however, we 
have a piece of pastoral life ; a man with some bulls and goats tumbling 
head foremost into the water, owing to some sudden paralytic affection 
of all their legs. Even this group is one too many ; the shepherd had 
no business to drive his flock so near the dancers, and the dancers 
will certainly frighten the cattle. But when we look farther into the 
picture, our feelings receive a sudden and violent shock, by the unex- 
pected appearance, amidst things pastoral and musical, of the military ; 
a number of Roman soldiers riding in on hobby-horses, Avith a leader on 
foot, apparently encouraging them to make an immediate and decisive 
charge on the musicians. Beyond the soldiers is a circular temple, in 
exceedingly bad repair ; and close beside it, built against its very walls, 
a neat water-mill in full work ; by the mill flows a large river with a weir 
across it. . . . At an inconvenient distance from the water-side 
stands a city, composed of twenty-five round towers and a pyramid. 
Beyond the city is a handsome bridge ; beyond the bridge, part of the 
Campagna, with fragments of aqueducts ; beyond the Campagna the 
chain of the Alps ; on the left, the cascades of Tivoli. 

*' This is a fair example of what is commonly called an ' ideal' land- 
scape ; i.e. a group of the artist's studies from nature, individually 
spoiled, selected with such opposition of character as may insure their 
neutralizing each other's effect, and united with sufficient unncituralness 
and violence of association to insure their producing a general sensation 
of the impossible." — Rtiskhi's Modem Painters. 

"Many painters take a particular spot, and sketch it to perfection ; 
but Claude was convinced that taking nature as he found it, seldom 
produced beauty. Neither did he like exhibiting in his pictures acci- 
dents of nature. He professed to pourtray the style of general nature, 
and so his pictures were a composition of the various draughts which he 
had previously made from beautiful scenes and prospects." — Sir J. 
Reynolds. 

1 8. Pieta : Ann. Caracci. 

23. Landscfipe, with the Temple of Apollo : Claude Lorraine. 

26. Portrait : Mazzolijzo. 

27. Portrait : Giorgione. 

33. Landscape, with Diana hunting : Claude Lorraine. 

At the end of this gallery is a small cabinet, containing 
the gems of the collection : — 

1. Portrait of a "Letterato :" Lucas V. L.eyden ? * 

2. Portrait of Andrea Doria : Sebastian del Piombo.* 

3. Portrait of Giannetto Doria : Bronzino.* 

4. Portrait of S. Filippo Neri, as a boy : Barocci. 

5. Portrait of Innocent X. ; Gio. Battista Pamfili (1644—55): 

Velasquez.* 

6. Entombment: yohn Emdingk.* 



PALAZZO COLONiVA. =53 

Here, also, is the bust of the late beloved Princess Doria 
(Lady Mary Talbot), which has always been veiled in crape 
since her death. 

The 4t/i Gallery is decorated with mirrors, and with 
statues of no especial merit. 

Opposite the Palazzo Doria is the Palazzo Salviati. The 
next two streets on the left lead into the long narrow square 
called Piazza Santi Apostoli, containing several handsome 
palaces. That on the right is the Palazzo Odescalchi, built 
by Bernini, in 1660, for Cardinal Fabio Chigi, to whose 
family it formerly belonged. It has some fine painted and 
carved wooden ceilings. This palace is supposed to be the 
scene of the latest miracle of the Roman Catholic Church. 
The present Princess Odescalchi had long been bedridden, 
and was apparently dying of a hopeless disease, when, while 
her family were watching what they considered her last 
moments, the pope (Pius IX.) sent, l3y the hands of a nun, 
a little loaf (panetello), which he desired her to swallow. 
With terrible effort, the sick woman obeyed, and was imme- 
diately healed, and on the following day the astonished 
Romans saw her go in person to the pope, at the Vatican, 
to return thanks for her restoration ! 

The building at the end of the square is the Palazzo 
Valentini, which once contained a collection of antiquities. 

Near this, on the left, but separated from the piazza 
by a courtyard, is the vast Palazzo Colonna, begun, in the 
fifteenth century, by Martin V., and continued at various 
later periods. Julius II. at one time made it his residence, 
and also Cardinal (afterwards San Carlo) Borromeo. Part 
of it is now the residence of the French ambassadors. The 
palace is built very near the site of the ancient fortress of 
the Colonna family — so celebrated in times of mediaeval 
warfare with the Orsini — of which one lofty tower still re- 
mains, in a street leading up to the Quirinal. 

The Gallery is shown every day, except Sundays and 
holidays, from 11 to 3. It is entered by the left wing. 
The first room is a fine, gloomy old hall, containing the 
family dais, and hung with decaying Colonna portraits. 
Then come three rooms covered with tapestries, the last 
containing a pretty statue of a girl, sometimes called 
Niobe. Hence we reach the pictures. The 1st Room 
has an interesting collection of the early schools, includ- 



54 WALKS IN- ROME. 

ing Madonnas of Filippo Lippi ; Liica Lo7ighi; Botticelli; 
Gentile da Fabriaiio ; Iiinocenza da Imola ; a curious Cruci- 
fixion, by 'yacopo d'Avanzo ; and a portrait by Giovanni 
Sanzio, father of Raphael. 

The ceiUng of the T^rd R00171 has a fresco, by Battoni and 
Luti, of the apotheosis of Martin V. (Oddone Colonna, 
141 7 — 24). Among its pictures, are St. Bernard, Giovanni 
Bellifti; Onuphrius Pavinius, Titian; Holy Family, Bro7i- 
zijto; Peasant dining, Aiinibale Caracci ; St. Jerome, Spagna ; 
Portrait, Paul Veronese ; Holy Family, Bonifazio. 

Hence we enter the Great Hall, a truly grand room, hung 
with mirrors and painted with flowers by Mario de' Fiori, and 
with genii by Maratta. The statues here are unimportant. 
The ceiling is adorned with paintings, by Coli and Gherardi, 
of the battle of Lepanto, Oct. 8, 157 1, which Marc- Antonio 
Colonna assisted in gaining. The best pictures are the 
family portraits: — Federigo Colonna, Stistermaniis ; Don 
Carlo Colonna, Vandyke; Card. Pompeio Colonna, Lorejizo 
Lotto ; Vittoria Colonna, Muziano ; Lucrezia Colonna, Van- 
dyke; Pompeio Colonna, Agostino Caracci ; Giacomo Sciarra 
Colonna, Giorgione. We may also notice an extraordinary 
picture of the Madonna rescuing a child from a demon, by 
Niccolo dAliinno, with a double portrait, by Tintoret, on the 
right wall, and a Holy Family of Palma Vecchio at the end 
of the gallery„ Near the entrance are some glorious old 
cabinets, inlaid with ivory and lapis-lazuli. On the steps 
leading to the upper end of the hall is a bomb left on the 
spot where it fell during the siege of Rome in 1848. 

(Through the palace access may be obtained to the 
beautiful Colonna Gardens ; but as they are generally visited 
from the Quirinal, they will be noticed in the description of 
that hill.) 

"On parle d'un Pierre Colonna, depouille de tons ses biens en iioo 
par le pape Pascal II. II fallait que la famille fut deji passablenient 
ancienne, car les grandes fortunes ne s'elevent pas en un jour." — 
About. 

*'Si n'etoit le different des Ursins et des Colonnois (Orsini and 
Colonna) la terre de I'Eglise seroit la plus heureuse habitation pour le« 
subjects, qui soit en tout le monde." — Philippe de Comincs. 1500. 
'* Gloriosa Colonna, in cui s' appoggia 

Nostra speranza, e'l gran nomc Latino, 
Ch'ancor non torte del vero cammino 
L'ira di Giove per ventosa pioggia." 

Fetrarca, Sojtnetto x. 



SS. APOSTOLL 55 

Adjoining the Palazzo Colonna is the fine Church of the 
Santi Apostoli, founded in the sixth century, rebuilt by- 
Martin v., in 1420, and modernized, c. 1602, by Fontana. 
The portico contains a magnificent bas-relief of an eagle 
and an oak-wreath (frequently copied and introduced in 
architectural designs). 

"Entrez sous la portique de I'eglise des Saints- Apotres, et vous 
trouverez la, encadre par hasard dans le mur, un aigle qu'entoure une 
couronne d'un magnifique travail. Vous reconnaitrez facilement dans 
cet aigle et cette couronne la representation d'une ensigne romaine, 
telle que les bas-reliefs de la colonne Trajane vous en ont montre 
plusieurs ; seulement ce qui etait la en petit est ici en grand." — Ampere, 
Emp. ii. 168. 

Also in the portico, is a monument, by Canova, to Vol- 
pato, the engraver. Over the sacristy door is the tomb of 
Pope Clement XIV. (Giov. Antonio GanganelH, 1769 — 74). 
also by Canova, executed in his twenty-fifth year. 

" La mort de Clement XIV. est du 22 Septembre, 1 774. A cette 
epoque, Alphonse de Liguori etait eveque de Sainte-Agathe des Goths, 
au royaume de Naples. Le 22 Septembre, au matin, I'eveque tomba 
dans une espece de somnieil lethargique apres avoir dit la messe, et, 
pendant vingt-quatre heures, il demeura sans mouvement dans sou 
fauteuil. Ses serviteurs s'etonnant de cet etat, le lendemain, avec lui: 
— * Vous ne savez pas, leur dit-il, que j'ai assiste le pape qui vient de 
mourir.' Peu apres, la nouvelle du deces de Clement arriva a Sainte 
Agathe." — Cournerie, Rome Chi-etienne, ii. 362. 

In the centre of the floor is the traditional grave of St. 
Philip and St. James the Less, the " Apostoli " to whom the 
church is dedicated. In the choir are monuments of the 
fifteenth century, to two relations of Pope Sixtus IV., Pietro 
Riario, and Cardinal Raffaelo Riario. To the right is the 
tomb of the Chevalier Girard, brother-in-law of Pope Julius 
II., and maitre d'hotel to Charles VIII. and Louis XII'. of 
France. The tomb of Cardinal Bessarion was removed 
from the church, in 1702, to the cloisters of the adjoining 
Convent, which is the residence of the General of the 
Order of " Minori Conventuali " (Black Friars). The altar- 
piece represents the martyrdom of SS. Philip and James, 
by Mui-atori. • 

The heart of Maria Clementina Sobieski (buried in St. 
Peter's), wife of James III., called the First Pretender, is 
also preserved here, as is shown by a Latin inscription. 

'* Le roi d'Angleterre est devot a Texces ; sa matinee se passe en 



56 WALJCS IN ROME. 

prieres aux Saints- Apotres, pres du tombeau de sa femme." — De 
Brasses, 1739. 

In 1552 this church was remarkable for the sermons of 
the monk Felix Peretti, afterwards Sixtus V. 

"Suivant un manuscrit de la bibliotheque Alfieri, un jour, pendant 
qu'il etait dans la chaire des Saints- Apotres, un billet cachete lui fut 
remis ; Frere Felix I'ouvre et y lit, en face d'un certain nombre de propo- 
sitions que Ton disait etre extraites de ses discours, ce mot ecrit en gros 
caracteres: Mentiris (tu mens). Le fougueux orateur eut peine a 
contenir son emotion ; il termina son sermon en quelques paroles, et 
courut au palais de I'lnquisition presenter le billet mysterieux, et de- 
mander qu'on examinat scrupuleusement sa doctrine. Get examen lui 
fut favorable, et il lui valut I'amitie du grand inquisiteur, Michael 
Ghislieri, qui comprit aussitot lout le parti qu'on pouvait tirer d'un 
homme dont les moindres actions etaient empreintes d'une inebranlable 
force de caractere." — Gournene. 

In this church is buried the young Countess Savorelli, 
the story of whose love, misfortunes, and death, has been 
celebrated by x^bout, under the name of Tolla (the I>ello of 
the story having been one of the Doria-Pamfili family). 

** The convent which Tolla had sanctified by her death sent three 
embassies in turn to beg to preserve her relics : already the people 
spoke of her as a saint. But Count Feraldi (Savorelli) considered that 
it was due to his honour and to his vengeance to bear her remains with 
pomp to the tomb of his family. He had sufficient influence to obtain 
that for which permission is not granted once in ten years : the right of 
transporting her uncovered, upon a bed of Avhite velvet, and of sparing 
her the horrors of a coffin. The beloved remains were wrapped in the 
white muslin robe which she w^ore in the garden on the day when she 
exchanged her sweet vows with Lello. The INIarchesa Trasimeni, ill 
and wasted as she was, came herself to arrange her hair in the manner 
she loved. Every garden in Rome despoiled itself to send her its 
flowers ; it was only necessary to choose. The funeral procession 
quitted the church of S. Antonio Abbate on Thursday evening at 7.30 
for the Santi Apostoli, where the Feraldis are buried. The body was 
preceded by a long file of the black and white confraternities, each bear- 
ing its banner. The red light of the torches played upon the counte- 
nance of the beautiful dead, and seemed to animate her afresh. The 
piazza was filled with a dense and closely packed but dumb crowd ; 
no discordant sound troubled the grief of the relations and friends of 
Tolla, who wept together at the Palazzo P'eraldi 

*' The Church of the Apostoli and the tomb of the poor loving 
girl, became at certain days of the year an object of pilgrimage, and 
more than one young Roman maiden adds to her evening litany the 
words, ' St. Tolla, virgin and martyr, pray for us.' " — About. 

Just beyond the church is the Palazzo Muto-SavoreUi (the 
home of Tolla, " Palazzo Feraldi ") long the residence of 
Prince Charles Edward (" the last Pretender "), who died 



PALAZZO BUONAPARTE. PALAZZO TORLONIA. 57 

here in 1788. Hence the Via delle Vergini, with its dismal 
hnes of latticed convent-windows, leads to the Fountain of 
Trevi. 

Returning to the Corso, we pass (right) Palazzo Buona- 
parte., built by Giovanni dei Rossi in 1660. Here Lcetitia 
Buonaparte — " Madame Mere" — the mother of Napoleon I., 
died February 2nd, 1836. The present head of the family 
is Cardinal Lucien-Louis Buonaparte, son of Prince Charles 
(son of Lucien) and of Princess Zenaide, daughter of King 
Joseph of Spain. His only surviving brother is Prince 
Napoleon Buonaparte. 

This palace forms one corner of the Piazza di Venezia, 
which contains the ancient castellated Palace of the Republic 
of Venice, built in 1468 by Giuliano da Majano (with 
materials plundered from the Coliseum) for Paul^ H., who 
was of Venetian birth. On the ruin of the republic the 
palace fell into the hands of Austria, and is still the resid- 
ence of the Austrian ambassador, to whom it was spe- 
cially reserved on the cession of Venice to Italy. 

Opposite this, on a line with the Corso, is the Palazzo 
Tor Ionia, built by Fontana in 1650, for the Bolognetti 
family. 

"Nobility is certainly more the fruit of wealth in Italy than in 
England. Here, where k title and estate are sold together, a man who 
can buy the one secures the other. From the station of a lacquey, an 
Itahan who can amass riches, may rise to that of duke. Thus Torlonia, 
the Roman banker, purchased the title and estate of the Duca di Brac- 
ciano, fitted up the ' Pala2zo Nuovo di Torlonia ' with all the magnifi- 
cence that wealth commands ; and a marble gallery, with its polished 
floors, modern statues, painted ceilings, and gilded furniture, far out- 
shines the faded splendour of the halls of the old Roman nobility." — 
Eaton^s Rome. 

" Un ancien domestique de place, devenu speculateur et banquier, 
achete un marquisat, puis une principaute. II cree un majorat pour son 
fils aine et une seconde geniture en faveur de I'autre. L'un epouse une 
Sforza-Cesarini et marie ses deux fils a une Chigi et une Ruspoli ; 
I'autre obtient pour femme une Colonna-Doria. C'est ainsi que la 
famille Torlonia, par la puissance de I'argent et la faveur du saint-pere, 
s'est elevee presque subitement a la hauteur des plus gi^ands maisons 
nepotiques et feodales."— ^<5^z^/. 

The most interesting of the antiquities preserved in this 
palace is a bas-relief, representing a combat between men 
and animals, brought hither from the Palazzo Orsini, and 
probably pourtraying the famous dedication of the theatre 



58 WALKS IN ROME, 

of Marcellus on that site, celebrated by the slaughter of six 
hundred animals. 

The end of the Corso — narrowed by a projecting wing of 
the Venetian Palace — is known as the Riprcsa del Bar- 
beri, because there the horses, which run in the races 
during the Carnival, are caught in large folds of drapery let 
down across the street to prevent their dashing themselves 
to pieces against the opposite wall. 

Close to the end of this street, built into the wall of a house 
in the Via de' Marforio, is one of the few relics of repub- 
lican times in the city, — a Doric Tonb, bearing an inscrip- 
tion which states that it was erected by order of the people 
on land granted by the Senate to Caius Publicius Bibulus, 
the plebeian gedile, and his posterity. 

This tomb has a secondary interest as marking the com- 
mencement of the Via Flaminia, as it stood just outside the 
Porta Ratumena from whence that road issued. There are 
some obscure remains of another tomb on the other side of 
the street. The Via Flaminia, like the Via Appia, was once 
fringed with tombs. 

From the Ripresa dei Barberi, a street passing under an 
arch on the right, leads to the back of the Venetian Palace, 
where is the Chiwch of S, Marco, originally founded in the 
time of Constantine, but rebuilt in 833, and modernized by 
Cardinal Quirini in 1744. Its portico, which is lined w^ith 
early Christian inscriptions, contains a fine fifteenth cen- 
tury doorway, surmounted by a figure of St. Mark. The 
interior is in the form of a basilica, its naves and aisles 
separated by twenty columns, and ending in an apse. 
The best pictures are S. Marco, "a pope enthroned, by 
Carlo Crivelli, resembling in sharpness of finish and indi- 
viduality the works of Bartolomeo Viviani," * and a Resur- 
rection by Falma Giovane. 

**The mosaics of S. Marco, executed under Pope Gregory IV, 
(A.D. 827 — 844), with all their splendour, exhibit the utmost poverty of 
expression. Above the tribune, in circular compartments, is the portrait 
of Christ between the symbols of the Evangelists, and further below 
SS. Peter and Paul (or two prophets) witli scrolls ; within the tribune, 
beneath a hand extended with a wreath, is the standing figure of Christ 
with an open book, and on either side, S. Angelo and Pope Gregory IV. 
Further on, but still belonging to the dome, are the thirteen lambs, 
forming a second and quite uneven circle round the figures. The 

* Kugler. 



THE GESU. 59 

execution is here especially rude, and of true Byzantine rigidity, while, 
as if the artist knew that his long lean figures were anything but secure 
upon their feet, he has given them each a separate little pedestal. The 
lines of the drapery are chiefly straight and parallel, while, with all this 
rudeness, a certain play of colour has been contrived by the introduction 
of high lights of another colour." — Kugler. 

This church is said to have been originally founded in 
honour of the Evangelist in 337 by Pope Marco, but this 
pope, being himself canonized, is also honoured here, and 
is buried under the high altar. On April 23rd, St. Mark's 
Day, a grand procession of clergy starts from this church. 
It was for the most part rebuilt under Gregory IV. in 

Behind the Palazzo Venezia is the vast Church of II 
Gesu, begun in 1568 by the celebrated Vignola, but the 
cupola and facade completed in 1575 by his scholar Gia- 
como della Porta. In the interior is the monument of 
Cardinal Bellarniin, and various pictures representing events 
in the lives or deaths of the Jesuit saints, — that of the 
death of the St. Francis Xavier is by Carlo Ma?-atta. The 
high altar, by Giacomo della Porta, has fine columns of 
giallo-antico. The altar of St. Ignatius at the end of the 
left transept is of gaudy magnificence. It was designed by 
Padre Pozzi, the group of the Trinity being by Bernardino 
Ludovisi ; the globe in the hand of the Almighty is said to 
be the largest piece of lapis-lazuli in existence. Beneath 
this altar, and his silver statue, lies the body of St. Ignatius 
Loyola, in an urn of gilt bronze, adorned with precious 
stones. A great ceremony takes place in this church on 
July 31st, the feast of St. Ignatius, and on December 31st 
a Te Deum is sung here for the mercies of the past year, in 
the presence of the pope, cardinals, and the people of Rome, 
— a rea.lly solemn and impressive service. 

The Co?ivent of the Gcsu is the residence of the General of 
the Jesuits (" His Paternity"), and the centre of religious 
life in their Order. The rooms in which St. Ignatius lived 
and died are of the deepest historic interest. They consist 
of four chambers. The first, now a chapel, is that in which 
he wrote his " Constitutions." The sepond, also a chapel, 
is that in which he died. It contains the altar at which 
he daily celebrated mass, and the autograph engagement 
to live under tlie same laws of obedience, poverty, and 
chastity, signed by Laynez, Francis Xavier, and Ignatius 



Co WALKS LV ROME. 

Loyola. On its walls are two portraits of Ignatius Loyola, 
one as a young knight, the other as a Jesuit father, and 
portraits of S. Carlo Borromeo arid S. Filippo Neri. It was 
in this chamber also that St. Francis Borgia died. The third 
room was that of the attendant monk of St. Ignatius ; the 
fourth is now a kind of museum of relics containing portions 
of his robes and small articles which belonged to him and 
to other saints of the Order. 

Facing the Church of the Gesli is the Palazzo Altieri, 
built by Cardinal Alteri in 1670, from designs of Giov. 
Antonio Rossi. 

"Quand le palais Altieri fut aclieve, les Altieri, neveux de Clement 
X., inviterent leur oncle a le venir voir. II s'y fit porter, et d'aussi loin 
qu'il aper9ut la magnificence et I'etendue de cette superbe fabrique, il 
reboussa chemin le coeur sen-e, sans dire un seul mot, et mourut peu 
apres." — De Brasses. . 

' ' On the staircase of the Palazzo Altieri, is an ancient colossal marble 
finger, of such extraordinary size, that it is really worth a visit." — Mrs. 
Eaton. 

This palace was the residence of the late noble-hearted 
vicar-general, Cardinal Altieri, who died a martyr to his de- 
votion to his flock (as Bishop of Albano) during the terrible 
visitation of cholera at Albano in 1867. 

The Piazza del Gesu is considered to be the most draughty 
place in Rome. The legend runs that the devil and the 
wind were one day taking a walk together. When they 
came to this square, the devil, who seemed to be very de- 
vout, said to the wind, "Just wait a minute, mio caro, 
while I go into this church." So the wind promised, and 
the devil went into the Gesli, and has never come out 
again — and the wind is blowing about in the Piazza del 
Gesli to this day. 



CHAPTER IIL 

THE CAPITOLINE. 



The Story of the Hill — Piazza del Campidoglio— Palace of the Senator 
— View fi-om the Capitol Tower — The Tabularium — The Museo 
Capitolino— Gallery of Statues — Palace of the Conservators — 



STORY OF THE HILL. 6 1 

Gallery of Pictures — Palazzo Caffarelli — Tarpeian Rock— Convent 
and Church of Ai-a-Coeli — Mamertine Prisons. 

THE Capitoline was the hill of the kings and the 
'republic, as the Palatine was of the empire. - 
Entirely composed of tufa, its sides, now concealed by 
buildings or by the accumulated rubbish of ages, were abrupt 
and precipitous, as are still the sides of the neighbouring 
citadels of Corneto and Cervetri. It was united to the Quirinal 
by an isthmus of land cut away by Trajan, but in every other 
direction was isolated by its perpendicular cliffs : — 

*' Arduus in valles et fora clivus erat." 

Ovid, Fast. i. 264. 

Up to the time of the Tarquins, it bore the name of Mons 
Saturnus,* from the mythical king Saturn, who is reported to 
have come to Italy in the reign of Janus, and to have made 
a settlement here. His name was derived from sowing, and 
he was looked upon as the introducer of civiHzation and 
social order, both of which are inseparably connected with 
agriculture. His reign here was thus considered to be the 
golden age of Italy. His wife was Ops, the representative of 
plenty, t 

" C'est la tradition d'un age de paix represente par le regne paisible 
de Saturne ; avant qu'il y eut une Roma, ville de la force, il y eut une 
Satui'nia, ville de la paix." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. i, 86. 

Virgil represents Evander, the mythical king of the Pala- 
tine, as exhibiting Saturnia,, already in ruins, to ^neas. 

" Hcec duo praeterea disjectis oppida muris, 
Reliquias veterumque vides monumenta virorum. 
Hanc Janus pater, hanc Saturnus condidit arcem : 
Janiculum huic, illi fuerat Saturnia nomen." 

^n. viii. 356. 

• When Romulus had fixed his settlement upon the Pala- 
tine, he opened an asylum for fugitive slaves upon the then 
deserted Saturnus, and here, at a sacred oak, he is said to 
have offered up the spoils of the C^cinenses, and their king 
Acron, who had made a war of reprisal upon him, after the 
rape of their women in the Campus Martins ; here also he 
vowed to build a temple to Jupiter Feretrius, where spoils 
should always be offered. But in the mean time, the Sabines, 
under Titus Tatius, besieged and took the hill, having a gate 

• Varro, De Ling. Lat. v. 4a. t Smith's Roman Mythology. 



62 WALKS IN ROME. 

of its fortress (said to have been on the ascent above the spot 
where the arch of Severus now stands) opened to them by 
Tarpeia, who gazed with longing upon the golden bracelets 
of the warriors, and, obtaining a promise to receive that 
which they wore upon their amis, was crushed by their 
shields as they entered. Some authorities, however, main- 
tain that she asked and obtained the hand of king Tatius. 
From this time the hill was completely occupied by the 
Sabines, and its name became partially merged in that of 
Mons Tarpeia^ which its southern side has always retained. 
Niebuhr states that it is a popular superstition that the 
beautiful Tarpeia still sits, sparkling with gold and jewels, 
enchanted and motionless, in a cave in the centre of the hill. 

After the death of Tatius, the Capitoline again fell under 
the government of Romulus, and his successor, Numa Pom- 
pilius, founded here a Temple of Fides Publica, in which 
the flamens were always to sacrifice with a fillet on their 
right hands, in sign of fidelity. To Numa also is attributed 
the worship of the god Terminus, who had a temple here in 
very early ages. 

Under Tarquinius Superbus, B.C. 535, the magnificent 
Temple of Jupiter Capitolhius, which had been vowed by his 
father, was built with money taken from the Volscians in 
war. In digging its foundations, the head of a man was 
found, still bloody, an omen which was interpreted by an 
Etruscan augur to portend that Rome would become the 
head of Italy. In consequence of this, the name of the hill 
was once more changed, and has ever since been Mo7is 
Capito/iniis, or Capitolium. 

The site of this temple has always been one of the vexed 
questions of history. At the time it was built, as now, the 
hill consisted of two peaks, with a level space between 
them. Niebuhr and Gregorovius place the temple on the 
south-eastern height, but Canina and other authorities, with 
more probability, incline to the north-eastern eminence, the 
present site of Ara-Coeli, because, among many other 
reasons, the temple faced the south, and also the Forum, 
which it could not have done upon the south-eastern 
summit; and also because the citadel is always repre- 
sented as having been nearer to the Tiber than the temple : 
for when Herdonius,. and the Gauls, arriving by the river, 
scaled \\\2 heights of the Capitol, it was the citadel which 



TEMPLE OF yUPITER CAPITOLINUS. 63 

barred their path, and in which, in the latter case, Manhus 
was awakened by the noise of the sacred geese of Juno. 

The temple of Jupiter occupied a lofty platform, the 
summit of the rock being levelled to receive it. Its faQade 
was decorated with three ranges of columns, and its sides 
by a single colonnade. It was nearly square, being 200 
Roman feet in length, and 185 in width. '"^ The interior was 
divided into three cells ; the figure of Jupiter occupied that 
in the centre, Minerva was on his right, and Juno on his 
left. The figure of Jupiter was the work of an artist of the 
Volscian city of Fregellse,t and was formed of terra-cotta, 
painted like the statues which we may still see in the 
Etruscan museum at the Vatican, and clothed with the tunica 
palmata, and the toga picta, the costume of victorious 
generals. In his right hand was a thunder-bolt, and in his 
left a spear. 

" Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in ^de ; 
Inque Jovis dextra fictile fulmen erat. " 

Ovid, Fast. i. 202. 

At a later period the statue was formed of gold, but this 
figure had ceased to exist in the time of Pliny. J When 
Martial wrote, the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, 
were all gilt. 

" Scrjptus es reterno nunc primum, Jupiter, auro, 
Et soror, et summi filia tota patris. '' 

Maiiialy xi. Ep. 5- 

In the wall adjoining the cella of Minerva, a nail was 
fastened every year, to mark the lapse of time.§ In the 
centre of the temple was the statue of Terminus. 

" The sumptuous fane of Jupiter Capitolinus had peculiar claims 
on the veneration of the Roman citizens ; for not only the great lord of 
the earth was worshipped in it, but the conservative principle of 
property itself found therein its appropriate symbol. While the statue 
of Jupiter occupied the usual place of the divinity in the furthest recess 
of the building, an image of the god Terminus was also placed in the 
centre of the nave, which was open to the heavens. A venerable legend 
affirmed, that when, in the time of the kings, it was requisite to clear a 
space on the Capitoline to erect on it a temple to the great father of the 
gods, and the shrines of the lesser divinities were to be removed for the 
purpose, Terminus alone, the patron of boundaries, refused to quit his 
place, and demanded to be included In the walls of the new edifice. 
Thus propitiated he was understood to declare that henceforth the 
bounds of the republic should never be removed ; and the pledge was 

• Vitruvius, iv. 7, I. f Pliny, xxxv. 12. t Pliny, vii. 39. § Livy, vii. 3. 



64 " WALKS IN ROME. 

more tl'an fulfilled by the ever increasing circuit of her dominion." 
— Afej-iziale, Roiv.ans Under the Empire. 

The gates of the temple were of gilt bronze, and its pave- 
ment of mosaic;'"'" in a vault beneath were preserved the 
SibylUne books placed there by Tarquin. The building of 
Tarquin lasted 400 years, and was burnt down in the civil 
wars, B.C. 83. It was rebuilt very soon afterwards by Sylla, 
and adorned with columns of Pentelic marble, which he 
had brought from the temple of Jupiter Olympus at 
Athens, t Sylla, however, did not live to rededicate it, 
and it was finished by Q. Lutatius Catulus, B.C. 62. 
This temple lasted till it was burnt to the ground by 
the soldiers of Vitellius, who set fire to it by throwing 
torches upon the portico, a.d. 69, and dragging forth 
Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, murdered him at the foot 
of the Capitol, near the Mamertine Prisons. J Domitian, 
the younger son of Vespasian, was, at that time, in the 
temple with his uncle, and escaped in the dress of a priest ; 
in commemoration of which, he erected a chapel to Jupiter 
Conservator, close to the temple, with an altar upon which 
his adventure was sculptured. The temple was rebuilt by 
Vespasian, who took so great an interest in the work, that 
he carried away some of the rubbish on his own shoulders ; 
but his temple was the exact likeness of its predecessor, 
only higher, as the aruspices said that the gods would not 
allow it to be altered. § In this building Titus and Vespasian 
celebrated their triumph for the fall of Jerusalem. The ruin 
of the temple began in a.d. 404, during the short visit of the 
youthful Emperor Honorius to Rome, when the plates of 
gold which lined its doors vrere stripped oft' by Stilicho. || It 
was finally plundered by the Vandals, in a.d. 455, when its 
statues wTre carried oft" to adorn the African palace of 
Genseric, and half its roof was stripped of the gilt bronze 
tiles which covered it ; but it is not known precisely when 
it ceased to exist, — the early fathers of the Christian Church 
speak of having seen it. The story that the bronze statue 
of Jupiter, belonging to this temple, was transformed by Leo I. 
into the famous image of St. Peter, is very doubtful. 

Close beside this, the queen of Roman temples, stood the 
Temple of Fides., said to have been founded by Numa, where 

• Pliny, xxxiii. 18. t Pliny, xxxvi. 5. J Tacitus, Hist. iii. 74. 

§ Tacitus, Hist. iv. 53. || Zosimus, lib. v. c. 38. 



THE ARX 65 

the senate were assembled at the time of the murder of 
Tiberius Gracchus, B.C. 133, who fell in front of the temple 
of Jupiter, at the foot of the statues of the kings : his 
blood being the first spilt in Rome in a civil war.* 
Near this, also, were the twin Temples of Mars and Veiiiis 
Erycina, vowed after the battle of Thrasymene, and con- 
secrated, B.C. 215, by the consuls Q. Fabius Maximus and 
T. Otacilius Crassus. Near the top of the Clivus was the 
Temple of yupiter Tona?is, built by Augustus, in consequence 
of a vow which he made in an expedition against the Cantabri 
when his litter was struck, and the slave who preceded him 
was killed by lightning. This temple was so near, that it 
was considered as a porch to that of Jupiter Capitolinus, 
and in token of that character, Augustus hung some bells 
upon its pediment. 

On the Arx, or opposite height of the Capitol, was the 
Temple of Honour afid Virtue, built B.C. T03, by Marius, with 
the spoils taken in the Cimbric wars. This temple was of suf- 
ficient size to allow of the senate meeting there, to pass the 
decree for Cicero's recall. t Here Nardini places the ancient 
Te77iple of yupiter Feretrius, in which Romulus dedicated the 
first spolia opima. Here, on the site of the house of Manlius, 
was built the Te/nple of Jimo Moneta, B.C. 345, in accordance 
with a vow of L. Furius Camillus. J On this height, also, was 
the Altar of yupiter Fistor, which commemorated the stra- 
tagem of the Romans, who threw down loaves into the camp 
of the besieging Gauls, to deceive them as to the state of 
their supplies. § 

"Nomine, quam pretio celebratior, arce Tonantis, 
Dicam Pistoiis quid velit ara Jovis." 

Ovid, Fast. vi. 349. 

It was probably also on this side of the hill that the gigantic 
Statue of yupiter stood, which was formed out of the armour 
taken from the Samnites, B.C. 293, and which is stated by 
Pliny to have been of such a size that it was visible from 
the top of Monte Cavo. 

Two cliffs are now rival claimants to be considered as the 
Tarpeian Rock ; but it is most probable that the whole of 
the hill on this side of the Intermontium was called the 

* Valerius Maximus, ii. 3. 3. 

t Vitruvius, iii. 2, 5 ; Fropertius, iv. 11, 45 ; Cic. pro Plane. 33. 

X Livy, vi. 20. § Livy, v. 48. 



66 IVALKS IN ROME. 

Mons Tarpeia, and was celebrated under that name by the 
poets. 

** In summo custos Tarpeice Manlius raxis 
Stabat pro templo, et Capitolia celsa tenebat : 
Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo. 
Atque hie auratis volitans argenteus anser 
Porticibus, Gallos in limine adesse canebat." 

Virgil, yEn. viii. 652. 
** Aurea Tarpeia ponet Capitolia rupe, 
Et junget nostro templorum culmina coelo." 

Sil. Ital. iii. 623. 
"juvat inter tecta Tonantis, 
Cernere Tarpeia pendentes rupe Gigantes." 

Claud, vi. Cons. Hon. 44. 

Among the buildings upon the Intermontium, or space 
between the two heights, were the Tabularium, or Record 
Office, part of which still remains ; a portico, built by 
Scipio Nasica,''' and an arch which Nero built here to his 
own honour, the erection of which upon the sacred hill, 
hitherto devoted to the gods, was regarded even by the sub- 
servient senate as an unparalleled act of presumption.t 

In mediaeval times the revolutionary government of Arnold 
of Brescia established itself on this hill (1144), and Pope 
Lucius II., in attempting to regain his temporal power, was 
slain with a stone in attacking it. Here Petrarch received his 
laurel crown (1341) ; and here the tribune Rienzi promul- 
gated the laws of the ''good estate." At this time nothing 
existed on the Capitol but the church and convent of Ara- 
Coeli, and a few ruins. Yet the cry of the people at the 
coronation of Petrarch, " Long life to the Capitol and the 
poet ! " shows that the scene itself was then still more present 
to their minds than the principal actor upon it. But, when 
the popes returned from Avignon, the very memory of the 
Capitol seemed effaced, and the spot was only known as the 
Goat's Hill, — Monte Capri7io. Pope Boniface IX. (1389 — 94) 
was the first to erect on the Capitol, on the ruins of the 
Tabularium, a residence for the senator and his assessors. 
Paul III. (1544 — 50) employed Michael Angelo to lay out 
the Piazza del Campidoglio ; when he designed the Capito- 
line Museum and the Palace of the Conservators. Pius IV., 
Gregory XHI., and Sixtus V. added the sculptures and othei 
monuments which now adorn the steps and balustrade. J 

* Vellcius Paterc. ii. 3. t See Merlvale, Hist, of the Romans, vol. vi. 

X Dyers Rome, 407, 408, 409, 



APPROACH TO THE CAPITOL. 67 

Just beyond the end of the Corso, the Via della Pedacchia 
turns to the right, under a quaint archway in the secret pass- 
age constructed as a means of escape for the Franciscan 
generals of Ara-Coeli to the Palazzo Venezia, as that in the 
Borgo is for the escape of the popes to S. Angelo. In 
this street is a house decorated with simple but elegant 
Doric details, and bearing an inscription over the door 
which shows that it was that of Pietro da Cortona. 

The street ends in the sunny open space at the foot of 
the Capitol, with Ara-Coeli on its left, approached by an 
immense flight of steps, removed hither from the Temple of 
the Sun, on the Quirinal, but marking the site of the famous 
staircase to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which Julius 
Caesar descended on his knees, after his truimph for his 
Gallic victories."'' 

The grand staircase, " La Cordonnata" was opened in its 
present form on the occasion of the entry of Charles V., in 
i536.t At its foot are two lions of Egyptian porphyry, which 
were removed hither from the Church of S. Stefano in 
Cacco, by Pius IV. It was down the staircase which 
originally existed on this site, that Rienzi the tribune fled in 
his last moments, and close to the spot where the left-hand 
lion stands, that he fell, covered with wounds, his wife wit- 
nessing his death from a window of the burning palace above. 
A small space between the two staircases has lately been 
transformed into a garden, through which access may be 
obtained to four vaulted brick chambers, remnants of the 
substructions of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. 

At the head of the stairs are colossal statues of the twin 
heroes. Castor and Pollux (brought hither from the Ghetto), 
commemorating the victory of the Lake Regillus, after which 
they rode before the army to Rome, to announce the joyful 
news, watered their horses at the Aqua Argentina, and 
then passed away from the gaze of the multitude into 
celestial spheres. Beyond these, on either side, are two 
trophies of imperial times discovered in the ruin on the 
Esquiline, misnamed the Trophies of Marius. Next come 
statues of Constantine the Great and his son Constan- 
tine II., from their baths on the Quirinal. The two ends 

* Ampire, Emp. i. 22. 

t When 400 houses and three or four churches were levelled to the ground to make 
a road for his triumphal approach.— /?a3^/aiy, Lettre viii. p. 21. 



68 WALKS IN ROME, 

of the parapet are occupied by ancient Milliaria, being the 
first and seventh milestones of the Appian Way. The first 
milestone was found in situ, and showed that the miles 
counted from the gates of Rome, and not, as was formerly 
supposed, from the Milliarium Aureum, at the foot of the 
Capitol. 

We now find ourselves in the Piazza del Campidoglio, 
occupying the Intermontium, where Brutus harangued the 
people after the murder of Julius Caesar. In the centre of the 
square is the famous Statue of Mai'cus Au7'elius, the only per- 
fect ancient equestrian statue in existence. It was originally 
gilt, as may still be seen from marks of gilding upon the 
figure, and stood in front of the arch of Septimius-Severus. 
Hence it was removed by Sergius III. to the front of the 
Lateran, where, not long after, it was put to a singular use 
by John XIII., who hung a refractory prefect of the city 
from it by his hair.'"' During the rejoicings consequent 
upon the elevation of Rienzi to the tribuneship in 1347, one 
of its nostrils was made to flow with water and the other 
with wine. From its vicinity to the Lateran, so intimately 
connected with the history of Constantine, it was supposed 
during the middle ages to represent that Christian emperor, 
and this fortunate error alone preserved it from the destruc- 
tion which befell so many other ancient imperial statues. 
Michael Angelo, when he designed the buildings of the 
Capitoline Piazza, wished to remove the statue to its present 
site, but the canons of the Lateran were unwilling to part 
with their treasure, and only consented to its removal upon 
an annual acknowledgment of their proprietorship, for which 
a bunch of flowers is still presented once a year by the senators 
to the chapter of the Lateran. Michael Angelo, standing in 
fixed admiration before this statue, is said to have bidden 
the horse "Cammina." Even until late years an especial 
guardian has been appointed to take care of it, with an annual 
stipend of ten scudi a year, and the title of " II custode del 
Cavallo." 

"They stood awhile to contemplate the bronze equestrian statue of 
Marcus Aurelius. ■ The moonlight glistened upon traces of the gilding 
which had once covered both rider and steed ; these were almost gone, 
but the aspect of dignity w\as still perfect, clotliing the ligure as it were 
with an imperial robe of light. It is the most majestic representation 

* Dyer's City of Rome, p. 379. 



c 



PALACE OF THE SENATOR. 69 

of the kingly character that ever the world has seen. A sight of the 
old heathen emperor is enough to create an evanescent sentiment of 
loyalty even in a democratic bosom, so august does he look, so fit to 
mle, so worthy of man's profoundest homage and obedience, so inevit- 
ably attractive of his love. He stretches forth his hand with an air of 
proud magnificence and unlimited authoi^ity, as if uttering a decree from 
which no appeal was permissible, but in which the obedient subject 
would find his highest interests consulted : a command that was in itself 
a benediction." — Hawthorne. 

"I often ascend the Capitoline Hill to look at Marcus Aurelius and 
his horse, and have not been able to refrain from caressing the lions of 
basalt. You cannot stand on the Aventine or the Palatine without 
grave thoughts, but standing on the spot brings me very little nearer the 
image of past ages." — Niebuht^s Lelte)-s. 

" La statue equestre de Marc-Aurele a aussi sa legende, et celle-l&. 
n'est pas du moyen age, mais elle a ete recueillie il y a peu d'annees de 
la bouche d'un jeune Romain. La dorure, en partie detruite, se voit 
encore en quelques endroits. A en croire le jeune Romain, cependant, 
la dorure, au lieu d'aller s'efra5ant toujours davantage, etait en voie de 
progres. ' Voyez, disait-il, la statue de bronze commence a se dorer, et 
quand elle le sera entierement, le monde finira.'' — C'est toujours, sous une 
forme absurd e, la vieille idee romaine, que les destinees et 1' existence de 
Ronie sont liees aux destinees et a I'existence du monde. C'est ce qui 
faisait dire au septieme siecle ; ainsi que les pelerins saxons I'avaient 
entendu et la repetaient ; ' Quand le Colisee tombera, Rome et le 
monde finiront.' " — Ampere, Emp. ii. 228. 

The building at the back of the piazza is The Palace of 
the Senator, originally built by Boniface IX. (1389), but 
altered by Michael Angelo to correspond with his buildings 
on either side. The fountain at the foot of the double 
staircase was erected by Sixtus V., and is adorned with 
statues of river gods found in the Colonna Gardens, and a 
curious porphyry figure of Minerva — adapted as Rome. The 
body of this statue was found at Cori, but the head and arms 
are modern additions. 

" Rome personnifiee, cette deesse a laquelle on erigea des temples, 
voulut d'abord etre une Amazone, ce qui se con9oit, car elle etait 
guerriere avant tout. C'est sous la forme de Minerve que Rome est ( 
assise sur la place du Capitole." — Ampere, Hist Romaine, iii. 242. 

In the interior of this building the Hall of the Senators con- 
tains some papal statues, and that of Charles of Anjou, who 
was made senator of Rome in the thirteenth century 

The Tower of the Capitol contains the great bell of Viterbo, 
carried off from that town during the wars of the middle 
ages, which is never rung except to announce the death of a 
pope, or the opening of the carnival. During the closing 
years of the temporal power of the popes, it has been difficult 



70 WALKS IN ROME. 

to obtain admission to the tower, but the asceLt is well 
repaid by the view from the summit, which embraces not 
only the seven hills of Rome, but the various towns and 
villages of the neighbouring plain and mountains which 
successively fell under its dominion. 

" Pour suivre les vicissitudes des luttes exterieures des Remains 
centre les peuples qui les entourent et les pressent de tons cotes, 
nous n'aurons qu'a regarder a I'horizon la sublime campagne roniaine 
et ces montagnes qui I'encadrent si admirablement. Elles sont encore 
plus belles et I'oeil prend encore plus de plaisir a les contempler quana 
on songe a ce qu' elles ont vu d' efforts et de courage dans les premiers 
temps de la republique. II n'est presque pas un point de cette 
campagne qui n'ait ete temoin de quelque rencontre glorieuse ; il n'est 
presque un rocher de ces montagnes qui n'est ete pris et repris vingt 
ibis. 

" Toutes ces nations sabelliques qui dominaient la ville du Tibre et 
semblaient placees la sur des hauteurs disposees en demi-cercle pour 
I'envelopper et I'ecraser, toutes ces nations sont devant nous et a la 
portee du regard. 

" Voici de cote de la mer les montagnes des Volsques ; plus a Test 
sont les Herniques et les ^ques ; au nord, les Sabins ; a I'ouest, d'autres 
ennemis, les fitrusques, dont le mont Ciminus est le rempart. 

'* Au sud, la plaine se prolonge jusqu'a la mer. Ici sont les Latins, 
qui, n'ayant pas des montagnes pour leur servir de citadelle et de refuge, 
commenceront par etre des allies. 

" Nous pouvons done embrasser le panorama historique des premiers 
combats qu'eurent a soutenir et que soutinrent si vaillamment les 
Romains affranchis." — Ampere^ Hist. Rom. ii. 373. 

Beneath the Palace of the Senator (entered by a door 
in the street on the right), are the gigantic remains of the 
Tabu/arhim, consisting of huge rectangular blocks of 
peperino supporting a Doric colonnade, which is shown by 
an inscription still preserved to have been that of the 
public Record Office, where the Tabulae, engraved plates 
bearing important decrees of the Senate, were preserved, 
having been placed there by Q. Lutatius Catulus in B.C. 79. 
A gallery in the interior of the Tabularium has been fitted 
up as a museum of architectural antiquities collected from 
the neighbouring temples. This building is as it were the 
boundary between inhabited Rome and that Rome which 
is a city of ruins. 

" I came to the Capitol, and looked down on the other side. There 
before my eyes opened an immense grave, and out of the grave rose a 
city of monuments in ruins, columns, triumphal arches, temples, and 
palaces, broken, ruinous, but still beautiful and grand, — with a solemn 
mournful beauty ! It was the giant apparition of ancient Rome." — 
Frederika Bremer. 



CAPITOL^GALLERY OF SCULPTURE. 71 

The traces of an ancient staircase still exist, which led 
down from the Tabularium to the Forum. This is believed 
by many to have been the path by which the besiegers under 
Vitellius, A.D. 69, attacked the Capitol. 

The east side of the piazza — on the left as one stands 
at the head of the steps — is the Museo Capitolino (open daily 
from 9 to 4, for a fee ; and on Mondays and Thursdays 
gratis, from 2 J to 4^). 

Above the fountain in the court, opposite the entrance, 
reclines the colossal statue of a river-god, called Marforio, 
removed hither from the end of the Via di Marforio (Forum 
Martis ?) near the arch of Severus. This figure, according to 
Roman fancy, was the friend and gossip of Pasquin (at the 
Palazzo Braschi), and lively dialogues, merciless to the follies 
of the government and the times, used to appear with early 
morning, placarded on their respective pedestals, as passing 
between the two. Thus, when Clement XI. mulcted Rome 
of numerous sums to send to his native Urbino, Marforio 
asked, ' What is Pasquino doing ? " The next morning 
Pasquin answered, " I am taking care of Rome, that it 
does not go away to Urbino." In the desire of putting an 
end to such inconvenient remarks, the government ordered 
the removal of one of the statues to the Capitol, and, since 
Marforio has been shut up, Pasquino has lost his spirits. 

From the corridor on the ground floor open several 
rooms devoted to ancient inscriptions and sarcophagi with 
bas-reliefs. The first room on the left has some bronzes — 
in the centre a mutilated horse, found, 1849, in the 
Trastevere. 

'* Calamis, venu im peu avant Phidias, n'eut point de rival pour les 
chevaux, Calamis, qui fut fondeur en bronze, serait-il I'auteur du cheval 
de bronze du Capitole, qui, en effet, semble plut6t un peu anterieur que 
posterieur a Phidias ? " — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 234. 

At the foot of the staircase is a colossal statue of the 
Emperor Hadrian, found on the Coelian. 

The Staircase is lined with the fragments of the Pianta 
Capitolina, a series of marble slabs of imperial date (found 
in the sixteenth century under SS. Cosmo and Damian), 
inscribed with ground plans of Rome, and exceedingly 
important from the light they throw upon the ancient 
topography of the city. 

The upper Corridor is lined with statues and busts. 



72 WALKS IN ROME. 

Here and elsewhere we will only notice those especially 
remarkable for beauty or historic interest.* 

L. 12, Satyr playing on a flute. 

R. 13. Cupid bending his bow. 

R. 20. Old woman intoxicated. 

'* Tout le monde a remarque dans le musee du Capitole une vieille 
femme serrant des deux mains une bouteille, la bouche entr'ouverte, les 
yeux mourants tournes vers le ciel, comme si, dans la jubilation de 
Fivresse, elle savourait le vin qu'elle vient de boire. Comment ne pas 
voir dans cette caricature en marbre une reproduction de la Vielle Femvie 
ivre de Myron, qui passait pour une des curiosites de Smyrne." — 
Amph-e, Hist. Rom. iii. 272. 

L. 26. The infant Hercules strangling a serpent. 

L. 28. Grand Sarcophagus — the Rape of Proserpine. 

R. 33. Satyr playing on a flute. 

(In the wall on the left inscriptions from the columbarium of Livia. ) 

R. 43. Head of Ariadne. 

L. 48. Sarcophagus — the birth and childhood of Bacchus. 

L. 56. Statue, draped. 

R. 64. Jupiter, on a cippus with a curious relief of Claudia drawing 
the boat with the image of the Magna Mater up the Tiber. 

L. 69. Bust of Caligula. 

R. 70. Marcus Aurelius, as a boy — a very beautiful bust. 

R. 70. Statue of jNlinerva from Velletri. The same as that in the 
Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican. 

R. 72. Trajan. 

76. In the window, a magnificent vase, found near the tomb 
of Cecilia Metella, standing on a puteal adorned with reliefs of the 
twelve principal gods and goddesses. 

From the right of this corridor open two chambers. The 
first is named the Room of the Doves, from the famous 
mosaic found in the ruins of Hadrian's villa near Tivoli, 
and generally called Plinfs Doves, because Pliny, when 
speaking of the perfection to which the mosaic art had 
attained, describes a wonderful mosaic of Sosus of Per- 
gamos, in which one dove is seen drinking and casting 
her shadow on the water, while others are pluming them- 
selves on the edge of the vase. As a pendant to this is 
another Mosaic, of a Tragic and Comic Mask. In the 
farther window is the Iliac Tablet, an interesting relief in 
the soft marble called palombino, relating to the story of 
the destruction of Troy, and the flight of ^neas, and found 
at BovillDc. 

'* l/enscmble de la guerre contre Troie est contenu dans un abrege 
figure qu'ou appelle la Table Iliaque, petit bas-relief destine a ofTrir un 

♦ R, right ; L, left. 



HALL OF THE EMPERORS. 73 

resume visible de cette j^juerre aux jeunes Remains, et \ servir clans 
les ecoles soit pour Y Jliade, soit pour les poemes cycliques comme d'un 
Index parlant. 

" La Table Iliaque est un ouvrage romain fait a Rome. Tout ce qui 
touche aux origines troyennes de cette ville, inconnues a Ilomere et 
celebrees surtout par Stesichore avant de I'etre par Virgile, tient dans 
ce bas-relief une place importante et domine dans sa composition." — 
Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 431. 

In the centre of the room is a pretty statuette of a girl 
shielding a dove. 

The second chamber, known as TJie Reserved Cabinef, 
contains the famous Venus of the Capitol — a Greek statue, 
found immured in a wall upon the Quirinal. 

'• La verite et la complaisance avec lesquelles la nature est rendue 
dans la Venus du Capitole faisaient de cette belle statue, — qui pourtant 
n'a rien d' indecent bien que par une pruderie peu chaste on I'ait 
releguee dans un cabinet reserve, — faisaient de cette belle statue un sujet 
de scandale pour I'austerite des premiers chretiens. C'etait sans doute 
afin de la soustraire a leurs mutilations qu'on I'avait enfouie avec soin, 
ce qui I'a conservee dans son inlegrite ; ainsi son danger I'a sauvee. 
Comme on I'a trouvee dans le quartier suspect de la Suburra, on peut 
supposer qu'elle ornait 1' atrium elegant de quelque riche courtisane." 
■ — Ampere, iii. 318. 

The two smaller sculptures of Leda and the Swan, and 
Cupid and Psyche — two lovely children embracing (most 
needlessly secluded here), were found on the Aventine. 

From the end of the gallery we enter 

The Hall of the Emperors. In the centre is the beautiful 
seated statue of Agrippina (grand-daughter of Augustus — 
wife of Germanicus — and mother of Caligula). 

"On s'arrete avec respect devant la premiere Agrippine, assise avec 
une si noble simplicite et dont ie visage exprime si bien la fermete virile." 
— Aviph'e, iv. 

" Ici nous la contemplons telle que nous pouvons nous la figurer 
apres la mort de Germanicus. Elle semble mise aux fers par le destin, 
mais sans pouvoir encore renoncer aux pensees superbes dont son ame 
etait remplie aux jours de son bonheur." — Bi-atin. 

Round the room are ranged 83 busts of Roman emperors, 
emjn-esses, and their near relations, forming perhaps the 
most interesting portrait gallery in the world. Even viewed 
as works of art, many of them are of the utmost importance. 
They are — 

1. Julius Cffisar, nat. B.C. 100 ; ob. B.C. 44. 

2. Augustus, Imp. B.C. 12 — A.D. 14. 

3. Marcellus, his nephew and son-in-law, son of Octavia, ob. B.C. 
23, aged 20. 



74 WALKS LV ROME. 

4, 5. Tiberius, Imp. a.d, 14-37. 

6. Drusus, his brother, son of Livia and Claudius Nero, ob. B.C. lO. 

7. Drusus, son of Tiberius and Vipsania, ob. A.D. 23. 

8. Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia, wife of the 
elder Drusus, mother of Germanicus and Claudius. 

9. Germanicus, son of Drusus and Antonia, ob. A.D. 19. 

10. Agrippina, daughter of Julia and Agrippa, gi'anddaughter of 
Augustus, wife ^^of Germanicus. Died of starvation under liberius, 

A.D. ZZ- 

11. Caligula, Imp. a.d. 37-41, son of Germanicus and Agrippina. 
Murdered by the tribune Cheroea (in basalt). 

12. Claudius, Imp. A.D. 41-54, younger son of Drusus and Antonia. 
Poisoned by Agrippina. 

13. Messalina, third wife of Claudius. Put to death by Claudius, 
A.D. 48. 

" Une grosse commere sensuelle, aux traits bouffis, a I'air assez 
commun, mais qui pouvait plaire a Claude." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 32. 

14. Agrippina the younger, sixth wife of Claudius, daughter of 
Germanicus and Agrippina the elder, great-granddaughter of Augustus. 
Murdered by her son Nero, A.D. 60. 

" Ce buste la montre avec cette beaute plus grande que relle de sa 
mere, et qui etait pour elle un moyen. Agrippine a les yeux leves vers le 
ciel, on dirait qu'elle craint, et qu'elle attend." — Evip. ii. 34. 

15. 16. Nero, Imp. A.D. 54-69, son of Agrippina the younger by 
her first husband, Ahenobarb^is. Died by his own hand. 

17. Popptea Sabina (?), second wife of Nero. Killed by a kick from 
her husband, a.d. 62. 

"Ce visage a la delicatesse presque enfantine que pouvait offrir celui 
de cette femme, dont les molles recherches et les soins curieux de toilette 
etaient celebres, et dont Diderot a dit avec verite, bien qu'avec un peu 
d'emphase, ' C'etait une furie sous le visage des graces.' " — Emp. ii. 38. 

18. Galba, Imp. a.d. 69. Murdered in the Forum. 

19. Otho, Imp. a.d. 69. Died by his own hand. 

20. Vitellius (?), Imp. A.D. 69. Murdered at the ScaloeGemoniae. 

21. Vespasian, Imp. A.D. 70-79. 

22. Titus, Imp. A.D. 79-81. Supposed to have been poisoned by 
Domitian. 

23. Julia, daughter of Titus. 

24. Domitian, Imp. A.D. 81-96, son of Vespasian. Murdered in the 
Palace of the Caesars. 

** Domitien est sans comparaison le plus beau des trois Flaviens : 
mais c'est une beaute formidable, avec un air farouche et faux." — 
Emp. ii. 12. 

25. Longina (?). 

26. Nerva (?), Imp. a.d. 96. 

27. Trajan, Imp. AD 98-I18. 

28. Plotina, wife of Trajan. 

29. Marciana, sister of Trajan. 

30. Matidia, daughter of Marciana, niece of Trajan. 

31. 32. Hadrian, Imr>. a.d. 118-138, adopted son of Trajan. 
33. Julia Sabina, wife of Hadrian, daughter of Matidia. 



CAPITOL— BUSTS OF THE EMPERORS. 75 

34. Elius Verus, first adopted son of Hadrian. 

35. Antoninus Pius, Imp. a.d. 138- 161, second adopted son of 
Hadrian, 

36. Faustina the elder, wife of Antoninus Pius and sister of Elius Verus. 

37. Marcus Aurelius, Imp. A.D. 161-180, son of Sei-vianus by 
Paulina, sister of Hadrian, adopted by Antoninus Pius, as a boy. 

38. Marcus Aurelius, in later life. 

39. Annia Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, daughter of Antoninus 
Pius and Faustina the elder. 

40. Galerius Antoninus, son of Antoninus Pius. 

41. Lucius Verus, son-in-law of Marcus Aurelius. 

42. Lucilla, wife of Lucius Verus, daughter of Marcus Aurelius and 
Faustina the younger. Put to death at Capri for a plot against her 
husband. 

43. Commodus, Imp. A.I). 180- 193, son of Marcus Aurelius and 
Faustina. Murdered in the Palace of the Caesars. 

44. Crispina, wife of Commodus. Put to death by her husband at 
Capri. 

45. Pertinax, Imp. A.D. 193, successor of Commodus, reigned three 
months. Murdered in the Palace of the Coesars. 

46. Didius Julianus, Imp. A.D. 193, successor of Pertinax. Murdered 
in the Palace of the Caesars. 

47. Manlia Scantilla (?), wife of Didius Julianus. 

/ rival candidates (after murder of Didius 

48. Pescennius Niger, 1 Julianus, A.D. 193) for the Empire, which 

49. Clodius Albinus, \ they failed to obtain, and were both put to 

( death. 

50. 51. Septimius Severus, Imp. A.D. 193-21 1, successor of Didius 
Julianus. 

52. Julia Pia, M'ife of Septimius Severus. 

53. Caracalla, Imp. A.D. 211-217, son of Sept. Severus and Julia Pia. 
Murdered. 

54. Geta, brother of Caracalla, by whose order he was murdered in 
the arms of Julia Pia. 

55. Macrinus, Imp. A.D. 217, murderer and successor of Caracalla. 
Murdered. 

56. Diadumenianus, son of Macrinus. Murdered with his father. 

57. Heliogabalus, Imp. A.D. 218-222, son of Julia Soemis, daughter 
of Julia Moesa, who was si^er of Julia Pia. Murdered. 

58. Annia Faustina, third wife of Heliogabalus, great-granddaughter 
of Marcus Aurelius. - 

59. Julia Moesa, sister-in-law of Septimius Severus, aunt of Caracalla, 
and grandmother of Alexander Severus. 

60. Alexander Severus, Imp., son of Julia INIammea, second daughter 
of Julia Moesa. Murdered at the age of 30. 

61. Julia Mammea, daughter of Julia Moesa, and mother of Alexander 
Severus. Murdered with her son. 

62. Julius Maximinus, Imp. 235-238 ; elected by the army. Murdered, 

63. Maximus. Murdered with his father, at the age of 1 8. 

64. Gordianus Africanus, Imp. 238 ; a descendant of Trajan. Died 
by his own hand. 

65. (Antoninus) Gordianus, Junior, Imp. 238, son of Gordianus 

G 



76 WALKS IN ROME. 

Africanus and Fabia Orestella, great-granddaughter of Antoninus Pius. 
Died in battle. 

66. Pupienus, Imp. 238, ) reigned together for four months and then 

67. Balbinus, Imp. 238, ) were murdered. 

68. Gordianus Pius, Imp. 238, grandson, through his mother, of 
Gordianus Africanus. Murdered. 

69. Philip II., Imp. 244, son of, and co-emperor with Philip I. 
Murdered . 

70. Decius (?), Imp. 249-251. Forcibly elected by the army. 
Killed in battle. 

71. Quintus Herennius Etruscus, son of Decius and Herennia 
Etruscilla. Killed in battle with his father. 

72. Hostilianus, son or son-in-law of Decius, Imp. 251, with Treb. 
Gallus. Murdered. 

73. Trebonianus Gallus, Imp. 251-254. Murdered. 

74. 75 . Volusianus, son of Trebonianus Gallus. Murdered. 

76. Gallienus, Imp. 261-268. Murdered. 

77. Salonina, wife of Gallienus. 

78. Saloninus, son of Gallienus and Salonina. Put to death by 
Postumus, A.D. 259, at the age of 17, 

79. Marcus Aurelius Carinus, Imp. 283, son of the Emperor Carus. 
Murdered. 

80. Diocletian, Imp. 284-305 ; elected by the army. 

81. Constantinus Chlorus, Imp. 305-306, son of Eutropius and 
Claudia, niece of the Emperor Claudius and Quintilius, father of 
Constantine the Great. 

82. Julian the Apostate, Imp. 361-363, son of Julius Constantius 
and nephew of Constantine the Great. Died in battle. 

83. Magnus Decentius, brother of the Emperor Magnentius. Strangled 
himself, 353. 

"In their busts the lips of the Roman empei'ors are generally closed, 
indicating reserve and dignity, free from human passions and emotions." 
— Winckelmann. 

*' At Rome the emperors become as familiar as the popes. Who 
does not know the curly-headed Marcus Aurelius, with his lifted brow 
and projecting eyes — from the full round beauty of his youth to the 
more haggard look of his latest years ? Are there any modern portraits 
more familiar than the severe wedge-like head of Augustus, with his 
sharp cut lips and nose, — or the dull phiz of Hadrian, with his hair 
combed down over his low forehead, — or the vain, perking face of 
Lucius Verus, with his thin nose, low brow, and profusion of curls, — 
or the brutal bull head of Caracalla, — or the bestial, bloated features of 
VitelUus? 

"These men, who were but lay figures to us at school, mere pegs 
of names to hang historic robes upon, thus interpreted by the living 
history of their portraits, the incidental illustrations of the places where 
they lived and moved and died, and the buildings and monuments they 
erected, become like men of yesterday. Art has made them our con- 
temporaries. They are as near to us as Pius VH. and Napoleon." — • 
Story s Roba di Rovia. 

"Ncrva est le premier des bons, et Trajan Ic premier des grands 



CAPITOL— BUSTS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 



n 



empereurs remains ; apres lui il y en eut deux autres, les deux Antonins. 
Trois sur soixante-dix, tel est a Rome le bilan des gloires morales de 
I'empire." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. liii. 

Among the reliefs round the upper walls of this room 
are two, — of Endymion sleeping, and of Perseus delivering 
Andromeda, which belong to the set in the Palazzo Spada, 
and are exceedingly beautiful. 

The Hall of Illustrious Men contains a seated statue of 
M. Claudius Marcellus (?), the conqueror of Syracuse, B.C. 
2 12. Round the room are ranged 93 busts of ancient 
philosophers, statesmen, and warriors. Among the more 
important are : — 



4. 5. 6. 


Socrates. 




48. Cneius Domitius Cor- 


9- 


Aristides, the orator. 




bulo, general under 


10. 


Seneca (?). 




Claudius and Nero. 


16. 


Marcus Agrippa. 




49. Scipio Africanus. 


19. 


Theophrastus. 




52. Cato Minor. 


23- 


Thales. . 




54. Aspasia (?). 


25- 


Theon. 




55. Cleopatra (?). 


27. 


Pythagoras. 




60. Thucydides (?). 


28. 


Alexander the Great(?). 




61. yEschines. 


30- 


Aristophanes. 


62 


64. Epicurus. 


31- 


Demosthenes. 




63. Epicurus and Metro- 


38. 


Aratus. 




donis. 


39, 40- 


Democritus of Ab- 


68 


69. Masinissa. 




dera. 




71. Antisthenes. 


42, 43- 


Euripides. 


72 


, 73. Julian the Apostate. 


45» 46. 


Homer. 




75. Cicero. 


47. 


Eumenides. 




76. Terence. 
82. yEschylus (?). 



44, 



Among the interesting bas-reliefs in this room is one 
of a Roman interior with a lady trying to persuade her 
cat to dance to a lyre — the cat, meanwhile, snapping, on 
its hind legs, at two ducks ; the detail of the room is given 
even to the slippers under the bed. 

The Saloon contains, down the centre, 

1. Jupiter (in nero-antico), from Porto d'Anzio, on an altar with 
figures of Mercury, Apollo, and Diana. 

2. 4. Centaurs (in bigio-morato), by Aristeas and Papias (their 
names are on the bases), from Hadrian's villa. 

3. The young Hercules, found on the Aventine. It stands on an 
altar of Jupiter. 

" On voit au Capitole une statue d'Hercule tres-jeune, en basal te, qui 
frappe assez desagreablement, d'abord, par le contraste, habilement 
exprime toutefois, des formes molles de I'enfance et de la vigueur carac- 
teristique du heros. L' imitation de la Grece se montre meme dans la 



78 WALKS IN ROME. 

matiere que I'artiste a choisie ; c'est un basalt verdatre, de couleur 
sombre. Tisagoras et Alcon avaient fait un Hercuie en fer, pour 
exprimer la force, et, comme dit Pline, pour signifier I'energie perse- 
verante de dieu." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 406. 

5. y^sculapius (in nero-antico), on an altar, representing a sacrifice. 

Among the statues and busts round the room the more 
important are : — 
9. Marcus Aurelius 

14. A Satyr. 

21. Hadrian, as Mars, from Ceprano. 

24. Hercules, in gilt bronze, found in the Forum-Boarium (the columns 
on either side come from the tomb of Cecilia Metella). 

"On cite de Myron trois Hercules, dont deux a Rome ; I'lm de ces 
derniers a probablement servi de modele a I'Hercule en bronze dore du 
Capitole. Cette statue a ete trouvee dans le marche aux Boeufs, non 
loin du grand cirque. L'Hercule de Myron etait dans un temple eleve 
par Pompee et sitae pres du grand cirque ; mais la statue du Capitole, 
dont le geste est maniere, quel que soit son merite, n'est pas assez 
parfaite qu'on puisse y reconnaitre une oeuvre de Myron. Peut-etre 
Pompee n'avait place dans son temple qu'une copie de Tun des deux 
Hercules de Myron et la donnait pour I'original ; peut-etre aussi Pline y 
a-t-il ete trompe. La vanite que I'un montre dans tons les actes de sa 
vie et le peu de sentiment vrai que trahit si souvent la vaste composi- 
tion de I'autre s'accordent egalement avec cette supposition et la ren- 
dent assez vraisemblable." — Ampere, Hist. Rovi . iii. 273. 

28. Hecuba. 

"Nous avons le personnage meme d'Hecube dans la Pleureuse du 
Capitole. Cette pretendue pleureuse est une Plecube furieuse et une 
Hecube en scene, car elle porte le costume, elle a le geste et la vivacite 

du theatre, je dirais volontiers de la pantomime Son regard est 

tourne vers le ciel, sa bouche lance des imprecations ; on voit qu'elle 
pourra faire entendre ces hurlements, ces aboiements de la douleur effrenee 
que I'antiquite voulut exprimer en supposant que la malheureuse Hecube 
avait ete metamorphosee en chienne, une chienne a laquelle on a arrache 
ses petits." — Ampere, Hist. Roin. iii. 468. 

31. Colossal bust of Antoninus Pius, 

The Hall of the Fatin derives its name from the famous 
Faun of rosso-antico, holding a bunch of grapes to his 
mouth, found in Hadrian's Villa. It stands on an altar 
dedicated to Serapis. Against the right wall is a magnificent 
sarcophagus, whose rehefs (much studied by Flaxman) 
represent the battle of Theseus and the Amazons. The 
opposite sarcophagus has a reUef of Diana and Endymion. 
We should also notice — 

15. A boy with a mask. 

21. A boy with a goose (found near the Latcran). 

Let into the wall is a black tablet — the Lex Regia, or 



CAPITOL— HALL OF THE D YING GLADIA TOR. 79 

Senatus-Consultum, conferring imperial powers upon Ves- 
pasian, being the very table upon which Rienzi declaimed 
in favour of the rights of the people. 

The Hall of the Dying Gladiator contains the three gems 
of the collection — " the Gladiator," " the Antinous of the 
Capitol," and the '' Faun of Praxiteles." Besides these, we 
should notice — 2. Apollo with the lyre, and 9. a bust of M. 
Junius Brutus, the assassin of Julius Cyesar. 

In the centre of the room is the grand statue of the 
wounded Gaul, generally known as the Dying Gladiator. 

** I see before me the gladiator lie : 

He leans upon his hand — his manly brow 

Consents to death, but conquers agony. 

And his drooped head sinks gradually low, — 

And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow 

From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, 

Like the first of a thunder-shower ; and now 

The arena swims around him —he is gone, 

Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won. 
*' He heard it, but he heeded not — his eyes 

Were with his heart, and that was far away ; 

He reck'd not of the life he lost, nor prize, 

But where his rude hut by the Danube lay 

There were his young barbarians all at play. 

There was their Dacian mother — he, their sire, 

Butchered to make a Roman holiday. 

All this rushed with his blood — shall he expire, 

And unavenged ? Arise, ye Goths, and glut your ire ! " 

Byron, Childe Harold, 

It is delightful to read in this room the description in 
Transfarmaiion : — 

"It was that room in the centre of which reclines the noble and 
most pathetic figure of the dying gladiator, just sinking into his death- 
swoon. Around the walls stand the Antinous, the Amazon, the Lycian 
Apollo, the Juno ; all famous productions of antique sculpture, and 
still shining in the undiminished majesty and beauty of their ideal life, 
although the marble that embodies them is yellow with time, and 
perhaps corroded by the damp earth in which they lay buried for cen- 
turies. Here, likewise, is seen a symbol (as apt at this moment as it 
was two thousand years agcr) of the Human Soul, with its choice of 
Innocence or Evil close at hand, in the pretty figure of a child, clasping 
a dove to her bosom, but assaulted by a snake. 

" From one of the windows of this saloon, we may see a broad flight of 
stone steps, descending alongside the antique and massive foundation of 
tlie Capitol, towards the battered triumphal arch of ScpliniiusSeverus, 
right below. Farther on, the eye skirts along the edge of the dcboiate 
Forum (where Roman washerwomen hang out their linen to the sun). 



8o WALKS AY ROME. 

passing over a shapeless confusion of modern edifices, piled rudely up 
with ancient brick and stone, and over the domes of Christian churches, 
built on the old pavements of heathen temples, and sujiported by the 
very pillars that once upheld them. At a distaiice beyond — yet but a 
little way, considering how much history is heaped into the intervening 
space — rises the great sweep of the Coliseum, with the blue sky 
brightening through its upper tier of arches. Far off, the view is shut 
in by the Alban mountains, looking just the same, amid all this decay 
and change, as when Romulus gazed thitherward over his half- finished 
wall. 

" In this chamber is the Faun of Praxiteles. It is the marble image of 
a young man, leaning his right arm on the trunk or stump of a tree : 
one hand hangs carelessly by his side, in the other he holds a fragment 
of a pipe, or some such sylvan instrument of music. His only garment, 
a lion's skin with the claws upon the shoulder, falls half-way down his 
back, leaving his limbs and entire front of the figure nude. The form, 
thus displayed, is marvellously graceful, but has a fuller and more 
rounded outline, more flesh, and less of heroic muscle, than the old 
sculptors were wont to assign to their types of masculme beauty. The 
character of the face con^esponds with the figure ; it is most agreeable 
in outline and feature, but rounded and somewhat voluptuously devel- 
oped, especially about the throat and chin ; the nose is almost straight, 
but very slightly curves inward, thereby acquiring an indescribable 
charm of geniality and humour. The mouth, with its full yet delicate 
lips, seems so really to smile outright, that it calls forth a responsive 
smile. The whole statue — unlike anything else that ever was wrought 
in the severe material of marble — conveys the idea of an amiable and 
sensual creature, easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not incapable of 
being touched by pathos. It is impossible to gaze long at this stone 
image, without conceiving a kindly sentiment towards it, as if its sub- 
stance were wami to the touch, and imbued with actual life. It comes 
very near to some of our pleasantest sympathies." — Hawthorne. 

*' Praxitele avait dit a Phryne de choisir entre ses ouvrages celui 
qu'elle aimerait le mieux. Pour savoir lequel de ses chefs-d'oeuvre 
I'artiste preferait, elle lui fit annoncer que le feu avait pris a son atelier. 
*Sauvez, s'ecria-t-il, mon Satyre et mon Amour!'" — Ampere, Hist. 
Rom. iii. 309. 

The west or right side of the Capitoline Piazza is occupied 
by the Palace of the Conservators, which contains the Proto- 
moteca, the Picture Gallery, and various other treasures. 

The little court at the entrance is full of historical relics, 
including remains of two gigantic statues of Apollo ; a colos- 
sal head of Domitian ; and the marble pedestal, wliich once 
in the mausoleum of Augustus supported the cinerary urn 
of Agrippina, wife of Germanicus, with a very perfect inscrip- 
tion. In the opposite loggia are a statue of Rome Triumph- 
ant, and a group of a lion attacking a horse, found in the 
bed of the Almo. In the portico on the right is the only 



CAPITOL— HALL OF THE CONSERVATORS, 8i 

authentic statue of Julius Caesar ; on the left, a statue of 
Augustus, leaning against the rostrum of a galley, in allusion 
to the battle of Actiuni. 

The Protonioteca, a suite of eight rooms on the ground 
floor, contains a collection of busts of eminent Italians, 
with a few foreigners considered as naturalised by a long 
residence in Rome. Those in the second room, representing 
artists of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, 
were entirely executed at the expense of Canova. 

At the foot of the staircase is a restoration by Michael 
Angelo of the column of Caius Duilius. On the upper 
flight of the staircase is a bas-relief of Curtius leaping into 
the gulf, here represented as a marsh. 

" Un bas-relief d'un travail ancien, dont le style ressemble a celui des 
figures peintes sur les vases dits archaiques, represente Curtius engage 
dans son marais ; le cheval baisse la tete et flaire le marecage, qui est 
indique par des roseaux. Le guerrier penche en avant, pressa sa 
monture. On a vivement, en presence de cette curieuse sculpture, le 
sentiment d'un incident heroique probablement reel, et en meme temps 
de I'aspect primitif du lieu qui en fut temoin." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. 
i. 321. 

On the first and second landings are magnificent reliefs, 
representing events in the life of Marcus Aurelius, Imp., 
belonging to the arch dedicated to him, which was wantonly 
destroyed, in order to widen the Corso, by Alexander VII. 

"Jusqu'au legne de Commode Rome est representee par une 
Amazone ; dans I'escalier du palais des Conservateurs, Rome, en 
tunique courte d' Amazone et le globe a la main, recoit Marc Aurele ; 
le globe dans la main de Rome date de Cesar." — Ampere, iii. 242. 

The Halls of the Conservators consist of eight rooms. 
The I St, painted in fresco from the history of the Roman 
kings, by the Cavaliere d'Arpiiw, contains statues of Urban 
VIII., by Bernini ; Leo X., by the Sicilian Giacomo della 
Duca;'^ and Innocent X., in bronze, by Algardi. The 
2nd room, adorned with subjects from republican history 
by Lauretti, has statues of modern Roman generals — Marc 
Antonio Colonna, Tommaso Rospigliosi, Francesco Aldo- 
brandini, Carlo Barberini, brother of Urban VIII. , and 
Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma. The 3rd room, 
painted by Daiiiele di Voltcri'a, with subjects from the wars 
with the Cimbri, contains the famous Bronze Wolf of the 

* The statue of Leo X. is interesting as having been erected to this popular art- 
loving pope in his lifetime. It is inscribed — " Optimi liberalissiriique pontificis 
memorise." 



82 WALKS IN ROME. 

Capitol, one of the most interesting relics in the city. The 
figure of the wolf is of unknown antiquity ; those of 
Romulus and Remus are modern. It has been doubted 
whether this is the wolf described by Dionysius as "an 
ancient work of brass " standing in the temple of Romulus 
under the Palatine, or the wolf described by Cicero, who 
speaks of a little gilt figure of the founder of the city 
sucking the teats of a wolf. The Ciceronian wolf was 
struck by lightning in the time of the great orator, and a 
fracture in the existing figure, attributed to lightning, is 
adduced in proof of its identity with it. 

"Geminos huic ubera circum 
Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 
Impavidos : illam tereti cei^vice reflexam 
Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua." 

Virgil, ^11. viii. 632. 

** And thou, the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome ! 
She-wolf! whose brazen-imaged dugs impart 
The milk of conquest yet within the dome 
Where, as a monument of antique art, 
Thou standest : — mother of the mighty heart, 
Which the great founder sucked from thy wild teat, 
Scorch'd by the Roman Jove's ethereal dart. 
And thy limbs black with lightning — dost thou yet 
Guard thy immortal cubs, nor thy fond charge forget ? " 

Byroji, Childe Harold. 

Standing near the wolf is the well-known and beautiful 
figure of a boy extracting a thorn from his foot, called the 
Shepherd Martins. 

" La ressemblance du type si fin de I'Apollon au lezard et du 
charmant bronze du Capitole le tireiir d' epine est trop frappante pour 
qu'on puisse se refuser a voir dans celui-ci une inspiration de Praxitele 
ou de son ecole. C'est tout simplement un enfant arrachant de son 
pied une epine qui Ta blesse, sujet naif et champelre analogue au 
Satyre se faisant rendre ce service par un autre Satyre. On a voulu y 
voir un athlete blesse par une epine pendant sa course et qui n'en est 
pas moins arrive au but ; mais la figure est trop jeune et n'a rien 
d'athletique. Le moyen age avait donne aussi son explication et invente 
sa legende. On raccontait qu'un jeune berger, envoye a la decouverte 
de I'ennemi, etait revenu sans s'arreter et ne s'etait permis qu'alore 
d'arracher une epine qui lui blessait le pied. Le moyen age avait senti 
le charme decette composition qu'il interpretait a sa maniere, car elle est 
sculptee sur un arceau de la cathedrale de Zurich qui date du siecle de 
Charlemagne." — Ampere, iii. 315. 

Forming part of the decorations of this room are two fine 
pictures, a dead Christ with a monk praying, and Sta. 



CAPITOL— PALACE OF THE CONSERVATORS. 83 

Francesca Romana, by Romanelli. Near the door of exit 
is a bust said to be that of Junius Brutus. 

"II est permis cle voir dans le busle du Capitole un vrai portrait de 
Brutus ; il est difficile d'en douter en le contemplant. Voila bien le visage 
farouche, la barbe hiisiite, les cheveux roides colles si rudement sur le 
front, la physiognomic inculte et terrible du premier consul romain ; la 
bouche serree respire la determination et Tenergie ; les yeux, formes 
d'une matiere jaunatre, se detachent en clair sur le bronze noirci par 
les siecles et vous jettent un regard fixe et farouche. Tout pres est la 
louve de bronze. Brutus est de la meme famille. On sent qu'il y a du 
lait de cette louve dans les veines du second fondateur de Rome, comme 
dans les veines du premier, et que lui aussi, pareil au Romulus de la 
legende, marchera vers son but a travers le sang des siens. 

" Le buste de Brutus est place sur un piedestal qui le met a la hauteur 
du regard. La, dans un coin sombre, j'ai passe bien des moments 
face a face avec I'impitoyable fondateur de la liberie romaine." — Afupere, 
Hist. Rom. ii. 270. 

The 4th Room contains the Fasti Consti/ares, tables 
found near the temple of Minerva Chalcidica, and in- 
scribed with the names of public officers from Romulus to 
Augustus. The 5th Room contains two bronze ducks 
(formerly shown as the sacred geese of the Capitol) and a 
female head — found in the gardens of Sallust, a bust of 
Medusa, by Bernini, and many others. The 6th, or 
Throne Room, hung with faded tapestry, has a frieze in 
fresco, by Annibale Caracd, representing the triumphs of 
Scipio Africanus. The 7 th Room is painted by Daniele 
da Volterra (?) with the history of the Punic Wars. The 
8th Room is a chapel, containing a lovely fresco, by 
Pinturicchio, of the Madonna and Child with Angels. 

" The Madonna is seated enthroned, fronting the spectator ; her large 
mantle forms a grand cast of drapery ; the child on her lap sleeps in the 
loveliest attitude ; she folds her hands and looks down, quiet, serious, 
and beautiful : in the clouds are two adoring angels." — Kugler. 

The four Evangelists are by Caravaggio ; the pictures of 
Roman saints (Cecilia, Alexis, Eustachio, Francesca-Ro- 
mana), by Romanelli. 

By the same staircase, passing on the left a wonderful 
relief of the apotheosis of the wicked Faustina, we may 
arrive at the Pidw^e Gallery of the Capitol (which can also 
be approaclied by a separate staircase, entered from an alley 
at the back of the building), reached by two rooms inscribed 
with the names of the Roman Conservators from the 
middle of the sixteenth century. This gallery contains very 



84 WALKS IN ROME. 

few first-rate pictures, but has a beautiful St. Sebastian, by 
Giiido, and several fine works of Guercino. The mosJ 
noticeable pictures are — 

1st Rooi7i. — 

2. Disembodied Spirit (unfinished) : Gitido Reni. 

13. St. John Baptist : Guercino. 

16. Mary Magdalene : Gicido Reni. 

20. The Cumaean Sibyl : Domenichino. 

26. Mary Magdalene : Tintoretto. 

27. Presentation in the Temple : Fra. Bartolomeo. 
30. Holy Family : Garofalo. 

52. Madonna and Saints : Botticelli? 

61. Portrait of himself : Giiido Reni. 

78. Madonna and Saints: F. F7-ancia, 15 13. 

80. Portrait : Velasquez. 

87. St. Augustine: Giovanni Bellini. 

89. Romulus and Remus : Rubens. 

2nd Room. — 

100. Two male portraits : Vandyke. 

104. Adoration of the Shepherds : Mazzolino. 

106. Two Portraits : Vandyke. 

116. St. Sebastian : Guido Reni. 

117. Cleopatra and Augustus : Guercino. 
119. St. Sebastian: Lud. Caracci. 

128. Gipsy telling a fortune : Caravag^o. 

132. Portrait: Giovanni Bellini. 

134. Portrait of Michael Angelo : M. Venusti? 

136. Petrarch: Gio. Bellini? 

142. Nativity of the Virgin : Alhani. 

143. Sta. Petronilla : Guercino. An enormous picture, brought 

hither from St. Peter's, where it has been replaced by a 

mosaic copy. The composition is divided into two parts. 

The lower represents the burial of Sta. Petronilla, the upper 

the ascension of her spirit. 
"The Apostle Peter had a daughter, burn in lawful wedlock, who 
accompanied him in his journey from the East. Petronilla was won- 
derfully fair ; and Valerius Flaccus, a young and noble Roman, who 
was a heathen, became enamoured of her beauty, and sought her for his 
wife ; and he, being very powerful, she feared to refuse him ; she there- 
fore desired him to return in three days, and promised that he should 
then carry her home. But she prayed earnestly to be delivered from 
this peril ; and when Flaccus returned in three days, with great ]")omp, 
to celebrate the marriage, he found her dead. The company of nobles 
who attended him, carried her to the grave, in which they laid her, 
crowned with roses ; and Flaccus lamented greatly." — M7-s. Jameson^ 
from the Perfctto Legendario. 

199. Death and Assumption of the Virgin : Cola della Mat rice. 
. '* Here the death of the Virgin is treated at once in a mystical and 
dramatic style. Enveloped in a dark blue mantle, spangled with 



CAPITOL— PALAZZO CAFFARELLI. S5 

golden stars, she lies extended on a couch ; St. Peter, in a splendid 
scarlet cope as bishop, reads the service ; St. John, holding the palm, 
Aveeps bitterly. In front, and kneeling before the couch or bier, apiiear 
the three great Dominican saints as witnesses of the religious mystery ; 
in the centre St. Dominic ; on the left, St. Catherine of Siena ; and ou 
the right, St. Thomas Aquinas. In a compartment above is the 
Assumption." — Jameson' s Legends of the Madonna, P- S^S- 

123. Virgin and Angels : Paul Veronese. 

124. Rape of Europa: Paul Veronese. 

At the head of the Capitol steps, to the right of the ter- 
race, is the entrance to the Palazzo Caffarelli, the residence 
of the Prussian minister. It has a small but beautiful 
garden, and the view from the windows is magnificent. 

" After dinner, Bunsen called for us, and took us first to his house on 
the Capitol, the different windows of which command the different 
views of ancient and modern Rome. Never shall I forget the view of 
the former ; we looked down on the Forum, and just opposite Avere the 
Palatine and the Aventine, with the ruins of the Palace of the Caesars 
on the one, and houses intermixed with gardens on the other. The 
mass of the Coliseum rose beyond the Forum, and beyond all, the wide 
plain of the Campagna to the sea. On the left rose the Alban hills, 
bright in the setting sun, which played full upon Frescati and Albano, 
and the trees which edge the lake, and further away in the distance, it 
lit up the old town of Labicum." — Arnold's Letters. 

From the further end of the courtyard of the Caffarelli 
Palace one can look down upon part of the bare cliff of the 
Rupe Tarpeia. Here there existed till 1868 a small court, 
which is represented as the scene of the murder in Haw- 
thorne's Marble Faun, or " Transformation." The door, the 
niche in the wall, and all other details mentioned in the 
novel, were realities. The character of the place is now 
changed by the removal of the boundary-wall. The part of 
the rock seen from here is that usually visited from below by 
the Via Tor de' Specchi. 

To reach the principal portion of the south-eastern height 
of the Capitol, we must ascend the staircase beyond the 
Palace of the Conservators, on the right. Here we shall 
find ourselves upon the highest part of 

"The Tai-peian rock, the citadel 
Of great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth, 
So far renown'd and with the spoils enriched 
Of nations ." Paradise Regained. 

" The steep 
Tarpeian, fittest goal of treason's race. 
The promontory whence the traitor's leap 
Cured all ambition." Childe Harold. 



So WALKS IN ROME. 

The dirty lane, with its shabby houses, and grass-grown 
spaces, and filthy children, has little to remind one of the 
appearance of the hill as seen by Virgil and Propertius, who 
si:)eak of the change in their time from an earlier aspect. 

*' Hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem, et Capitolia ducit, 
Aurea nunc, olim, silvestribus horrida dumis, 
Jam turn religio pavidos terrebat agrestes 
Dira loci ; jam turn silvam saxmnque tremebant." 

Vh-gil, u^n. viii. 347, 

"Hoc quodcumque vides, hospes, qua maxima Roma est, 
Ante Phrygem Aeneam collis et herba fuit." 

Propertius, iv. el eg. I. 

It was on this side that the different attacks were made 
upon the Capitol. The first was by the Sabine Herdonius 
at the head of a band of slaves, who scaled the heights 
and surprised the garrison, in B.C. 460, and from the heights 
of the citadel proclaimed freedom to all slaves who should 
join him, with abolition of debts, and defence of the plebs 
from their oppressors ; but his offers were disregarded, 
and on the fourth day the Capitol was re-taken, and he was 
slain with nearly all his followers. The second attack was 
by the Gauls, who, according to the well-known story, 
climbed the rock near the Porta Carmentale, and had 
nearly reached the summit unobserved — for the dogs neg- 
lected to bark — when the cries of the sacred geese of 
Juno aroused an ofiicer named Manlius, who rushed to the 
defence, and hurled over the precipice the first assailant, 
who dragged down others in his fall, and thus the Capitol 
was saved. In remembrance of this incident, a goose was 
annually carried in triumph, and a dog annually crucified 
upon the Capitol, between the temple of Summanus 
and that of Youth.* This was the same Manlius, the 
friend of the people, who was afterwards condemned by 
the patricians on pretext that he wished to make himself 
king, and thrown from the Tarpeian rock, on the same spot, 
in sight of the Forum, where Spurius Cassius, an ex-consul, 
had been thrown down before. To visit the part of the 
rock from which these executions must have taken place, 
it is necessary to enter a little garden near the German 
Hospital, whence there is a beautiful view of the river and 
the Aventine. 

♦ Plin. Nat. Hist. xxix. 14, i ; Pint. Fort Rom. 12. 



ARA-CCELL S7 

*' Qnand on veut visiter la roclie Tarpeienne, on Sonne a une porte de 
peu d'apparence, sur laquelle sont ecrits ces mots : Jxocca Tarpeia. Une 
pauvre femme arrive et vous mene dans un carre de choux. C'est de la 
qu'on precipita Manilas. Je serais desole que le carre de choux man- 
quat." — Ampere^ Portraits de Rome. 

This side of the Intermontinm is now generally known as 
Monte Caprino, a name which Ampere derives from the 
fact that Vejovis, the Etruscan ideal of Jupiter, was always 
represented with a goat.''' On this side of the hill, the 
viaduct from the Palatine, built by Caligula (who affected to 
require it to facilitate communication with his friend Jupiter), 
joined the Capitoline. 

We have still to examine the north-eastern height, the 
site of the most interesting of pagan temples, now occupied 
by one of the most interesting of Christian churches. The 
name of the famous Church of Ara-Coeli is generally at- 
tributed to an altar erected by Augustus to commemorate 
the Delphic oracle respecting the coming of our Saviour, 
which is still recognised in the well-known hymn of the 
Church : 

Teste David cum Sibylla. + 

The altar bore the inscription "Ara Primogeniti Dei.'' 
Those who seek a more humble origin for the church, say 
that the name merely dates from mediaeval times, when 
it was called " Sta. Maria in i\urocoeHo." It originally 
belonged to the Benedictine Order, but was transferred to 
the Franciscans by Innocent IV. in 1252, since which time 
its convent has occupied an important position as the 
residence of the General of the Minor Franciscans (Grey- 
friars), and is the centre of religious life in that Order. 

The staircase on the left of the Senators' palace, which 
leads to the side entrance of Ara-Coeli, is in itself full of 
historical associations. It was at its head that Valerius the 
consul was killed in the conflict with Herdonius for the 
possession of the Capitol. It was down the ancient steps 
on this site that Annius, the envoy of the Latins, fell (b.c. 
340), and was nearly killed, after his audacious proposition 
in the temple of Jupiter, that the Latins and Romans should 
become one nation, and have a common senate and consuls. 
Here also, J in b. c. 133, Tiberius Gracchus was knocked 

* Hist. Rom. i. 382. 

t The "Dies Irs," by Tommaso di Celani, of the fourteenth century. 

X " Per gradus qui sunt super Calpurnium fornicem." 



88 WALKS IN ROME. 

down with the leg of a chair, and killed in front of the 
temple of Jupiter. 

It is at the top of these steps, that the monks of Ara- 
Coeli, who are celebrated as dentists, perform their hideous, 
but useful and gratuitous operations, which may be wit- 
nessed here every morning ! 

Over the side entrance of Ara-Coeli is a beautiful mosaic 
of the Virgin and Child. This, with the ancient brick arches 
above, framing fragments of deep blue sky — and the worn 
steps below — forms a subject dear to Roman artists, and is 
often introduced as a background to groups of monks and 
peasants. The interior of the church is vast, solemn, and 
highly picturesque. It was here, as Gibbon himself tells us, 
that on the 15th of October, 1764, as he sat musing amidst 
the ruins of the Capitol, while the bare-footed friars were 
singing vespers, the idea of writing the " Decline and Fall " 
of the city first started to his mind. 

" As we lift the great curtain and push into the church, a faint perfume 
of incense sahites the nostrils. The golden sunset bursts in as the curtain 
of the (west) door sways forward, illuminates the mosaic floor, catches 
on the rich golden ceiling, and flashes here and there over the crowd 
(gathered in Epiphany), on some brilliant costume or closely shaven 
head. All sorts of people are thronging there, some kneeling before 
the shrine of the Madonna, which gleams with its hundreds of silver 
votive hearts, legs, and arms, some listening to the preaching, some 
crowding round the chapel of the Presepio. Old women, haggard and 
wrinkled, come tottering along with their scaldini of coals, drop down 
on their knees to pray, and, as you pass, interpolate in their prayers a 
parenthesis of begging. The church is not architecturally handsome, 
but it is eminently picturesque, with its relics of centuries, its mosaic 
pulpits and floors, its frescoes of Pinturicchio and Pesaro, its antique 
columns, its rich golden ceiling, its gothic mausoleum to the Savelli, 
and its mediaeval tombs. A dim, dingy look is over all — but it is the 
dimness of faded splendour ; and one cannot stand there, knowing the 
history of the church, its great antiquity, and the varied fortunes it has 
known, Avithout a peculiar sense of interest and pleasure. 

"It was here that Romulus in the grey dawning of Rome built the 
temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Here the spoUa opiina were deposited. 
Here the triumphal processions of the emperors and generals ended. 
Here the victors paused before making their vows, until, from the 
Mamertinc prisons l^elow, the message came to announce that their 
noblest prisoner and victim — while the clang of their triumph and his 
defeat rose ringing in his ears, as the procession ascended the steps — had 
expiated with death the crime of being the enemy of Rome. On the 
steps of Ara-Coeli, nineteen centuries ago, the fast great Caesar climbed 
on his knees after his first triumph. At iheir base, Ricnzi, the last of 
the Roman tribunes, fell — and if the tradition of the Church is to be 
trusted, it was on the site of the present high altar that Augustus erected 



A R A- C CELL 89 

the ' Ara Primogeniti Dei,' to commemorate the Delphic prophecy of the 
coming of om* Saviour. Standing on a spot so thronged with memories, 
the dullest imagination takes fire. The forms and scenes of the past 
rise from their graves and pass before us, and the actual and visionary arc 
mingled together in strange poetic confusion." — Roba di Rof?ia, i. 73. 

The floor of the church is of the ancient mosaic known 
as Opus Alexandrinum. The nave is separated from the 
aisles by twenty-two ancient columns, of which two are of 
cipollino, two of white marble, and eighteen of Egyptian 
granite. They are of very different forms and sizes, and 
have probably been collected from various pagan edifices. 
The inscription " A Cubiculo Augustorum " upon the third 
column on the left of the nave, shows that it was brought 
from the Palace of the Caesars. The windows in this church 
are amongst the few in Rome which show traces of gothic. 
At the end of the nave, on either side, are two ambones, 
marking the position of the choir before it was extended 
to its present site in the sixteenth century. 

The transepts are full of interesting monuments. That 
on the right is the burial-place of the great family of Savelli, 
and contains — on the left, the monument of Luca Savelli, 
1266 (father of Pope Honorius IV.) and his son Pandolfo, — • 
an ancient and richly sculptured sarcophagus, to which a 
gothic canopy was added by Agostmo and Agnolo da Siena 
from designs of Giotto. Opposite, is the tomb of the mother 
of Honorius, Vana Aldobrandesca, upon which is the statue 
of the pope himself, removed from his monument in the old 
St. Peter's by Paul III. 

On the left of the high altar is the tomb of Cardinal 
Gianbattista Savelli, ob. 1498, and near it — in the pavement, 
the half-effaced gravestone of Sigismondo Conti, whose 
features are so familiar to us from his portrait introduced 
into the famous picture of the Madonna di Foligno, which 
was painted by Raphael at his order, and presented by 
him to this church, where it remained over the high altar, 
till 1565, when his great niece Anna became a nun at the 
convent of the Contesse at Foligno, and was allowed to 
carry it away with her. In the east transept is another fine 
gothic tomb, that of Cardinal Matteo di Acquasparta (1302), 
a General of the Franciscans mentioned by Dante for his 
wise and moderate rule.''" The quaint chapel in the middle 

• Paradiso, canto xii. 



90 IVALKS IN ROME. 

of this transept, now dedicated to St. Helena, is supposed 
to occupy the site of the " Ara Primogeniti Dei." 

Upon the pier near the ambone of the gospel is the 
monument of Queen Catherine of Bosnia, who died at 
Rome m 1478, bequeathing her states to the Roman Church 
on condition of their reversion to her son, who had embraced 
Mahommedanism, if he should return to the Catholic faith. 
Near this, upon the transept wall, is the tomb of Felice de 
Fredis, ob. 1529, upon which it is recorded that he was the 
finder of the Laocoon. The Chapel of the Annunciation, 
opening from the west isle, has a tomb to G. Crivelli, by 
Donatello, bearing his signature, " Opus Donatelli Floren- 
tine " The Chapel of Santa Croce is the burial-place of the 
Ponziani family, and was the scene of the celebrated 
ecstasy of the favourite Roman saint Francesca Romana. 

"The mortal remains of Vanozza Ponziani (sister-in-law of Francesca) 
were laid in the church of Ara-Coeh, in the chapel of Santa Croce. 
The Roman people resorted there in crowds to behold once more their 
loved benefactress — the iriother of the poor, the consoler of the afflicted. 
All strove to carry away some little memorial of one who had goni 
about among them doing good, and during the three days which precede I 
the interment, the concourse did not abate. On the day of the funert'l 
Francesca knelt on one side of the coffin, and, in sight of all the crow<r, 
she was wrapped in ecstasy. They saw her body lifted from the ground, 
and a seraphic expi-ession in her uplifted face. They heard her murmur 
several times with an indescribable emphasis the word ' Quando ? 
Quando ? ' When all was over, she still remained immovable ; it seemed 
as if her soul had risen on the wings of prayer, and followed Vanozza' s 
spirit into the realms of bliss. At last her confessor ordered her to rise 
and go and attend on the sick. She instantly complied, and walked 
away to the hospital which she had founded, apparently unconscious of 
everything about her, and only roused from her trance by the habit of 
obedience, which, in or out of ecstasy, never forsook her." — Lady 
Geoj-giana FidlertotH s Life of Sta. F?'. Romana. 

There are several good pictures over the altars in the aisles 
of Ara-Cceli. In the Chapel of St. Margaret of Coriona 
are frescoes illustrative of her life by Filippo Evafigelisti, — in 
that of S. Antonio, frescoes by Nicolo da Pcsaro ; — but no 
one should omit visiting the first chapel on the right of the 
west door, dedicated to S. Bernardino of Siena, and painted 
by Bernardino Finturicchio, who has put forth his best powers 
to do honour to his patron saint with a series of exquisite 
frescoes, representing his assuming the monastic habit, his 
preaching, his vision of the Saviour, his penitence, death, and 
burial. 



IL SANTISSIMO BAMBINO. 91 

Almost opposite this — closed except during Epiphany — is 
the Chapel of the Presepio, where the famous image of the 
Saiitissiuio Bambmo d'A?'a Call is shown at that season lying 
in a manger. 

"The simple meaning of the term Presepio is a manger ; but it is also 
used in the Church to signify a representation of the birth of Chri:;t. In 
the Ara-Coeli the whole of one of the side-chapels is devoted to this 
exhibition. In the foreground is a grotto, in which is seated the Virgin 
Mary, with Joseph at her side and the miraculous Bambino in her lap. 
Immediately behind are an ass and an ox. On one side kneel the 
shepherds and kings in adoration ; and above, God the Father is seen 
surrounded by crowds of cherubs and angels playing on instruments, as 
in the early pictures of Raphael. In the background is a scenic repre- 
sentation of a pastoral landscape, on which all the skill of the scene- 
painter is expended. Shepherds guard their flocks far away, reposing 
under palm-trees or standing on green slopes which glow in the sunshine. 
The distances and perspective are admirable. In the middle ground is 
a crystal fountain of glass, near which sheep, preternaturally white, and 
made of real wool and cotton wool, are feeding, tended by figures of 
shepherds carved in wood. Still nearer come women bearing great 
baskets of real oranges and other fruits on their heads. All the nearer 
figures are full -sized, carved in wood, painted, and dressed in ajipro- 
priate robes. The miraculous Bambino is a painted doll swaddled in a 
white dress, which is crusted over with magnificent diamonds, emeralds, 
and rubies. The Virgin also v/ears in her ears superb diamond pendants. 
The general effect of the scenic show is admirable, and crowds flock to 
it and press about it all day long. 

"^Vhile this is taking place on one side of the church, on the other is 
a very different and quite as singular an exhibition. Around one of the 
antique columns a stage is erected, from which little maidens are re- 
citing, with every kind of pretty gesticulation, sermons, dialogues, and 
little speeches, in explanation of the Presepio opposite. Sometimes two 
of them are engaged in alternate questions and answers about the mys- 
teries of the Incarnation and the Redemption. Sometimes the recitation 
is a piteous description of the agony of the Saviour and the sufferings of 
the Madonna, the greatest stress being, however, always laid upon the 
latter. All these little speeches have been written for them by their 
priest or some religious friend, committed to memory, and practised with 
appropriate gestures over and over again at home. Their little piping 
voices are sometimes guilty of such comic breaks and changes, that the 
crowd about them rustles into a murmurous laughter. Sometimes, also, 
one of the little preachers has a dispetio, pouts, shakes her shoulders, and 
refuses to go on with her part ; another, however, always stands ready 
on the platform to supply the vacancy, until friends have coaxed, rea- 
soned, or threatened the little pouter into obedience. These children are 
often very beautiful and graceful, and their comical little gestures and 
intonations, their clasping of hands and rolling up of eyes, have a very 
amusing and interesting effect." — Storyl's Roba di Roma. 

At other times the Bambino dwells in the Sacristy, where 
it can be visited by admiring pilgrims. It is a fresh-coloured 

H 



92 WALKS IN ROME, 

doll, tightly swathed in gold and silver tissue, crowned, and 
sparkling with jewels. It has servants of its own, and a 
carriage in which it drives out with its attendants, and goes to 
visit the sick. Devout peasants always kneel as the blessed 
infant .passes. Formerly it was taken to sick persons and 
left on their beds for some hours, in the hope that it would 
work a miracle. Now it is never left alone. In explanation 
of this, it is said that an audacious woman formed the design 
of appropriating to herself the holy image and its benefits. 
She had another doll prepared of the same size and appear- 
ance as the " Santissimo, " and having feigned sickness, and 
obtained permission to have it left with her, she dressed the 
false image in its clothes, and sent it back to Ara-Cceli. 
The fraud was not discovered till night, when the Franciscan 
monks were awakened by the most furious ringing of bells 
and by thundering knocks at the west door of the church, 
and hastening thither could see nothing but a wee naked 
pink foot peeping in from under the door ; but when they 
opened the door, without stood the little naked figure of the 
true Bambino of Ara-Coeli, shivering in the wind and the 
rain, — so the false baby was sent back in disgrace, and the 
real baby restored to its home, never to be trusted away 
alone any more. 

In the sacristy is the follov/ing inscription relating to the 
Bambino : — ■ 

*' Ad hoc sacellum Ara Coeli a festo nativitatis domini usque ad festum 
Epiphanioe magna populi frequentia invisitur et colitur in presepio 
Christi nati infantuli simulacrum ex oleoe ligno apud montem olivarum 
Hierosolymis a quodam devoto Minorita sculptum eo animo, ut ad hoc 
festum celebrandum deporiaretur. De quo in primis hoc accidil, quod 
deficiente colore inter barbaras gentes ad plenam infantuli figurationem 
et formam, devotus et anxius artifex, professione laicus, precibus et 
orationibus impetravit, ut sacrum simulacrum divinitus carneo colore 
perfunctum reperiretur. Cumque navi Italiam veheretur, facto naufragio 
apud Tuscise oras, simulacri capsa Liburnum appulit. Ex quo, recognita, 
expectabatur, enim a Fratribus, et jam fama illius a Hierosolymis ad 
nostras familice partes advenerat, ad destinatam sibi Capitolii sedem 
devenit. Fertur etiam, quod aliquando ex nimia devotione a quadam 
devota foemina sublatum ad suas ?edcs miraculose remeaverit. Qua- 
propter in maxima veneratione semper est habitum a Romanis civibus, 
et universo populo donatum monilibus, et jocalibus pretiosis, liberaliori- 
busque in dies prosequitur oblationibus." 

The scene on the long flight of steps which leads to the 
west door of Ara-Coeli is very curious during Epiphany. 



CONVENT OF ARA-CCELI. 93 

"If any one visit the Ara-Coeli during an afternoon in Christmas or 
Epiphany, the scene is very strilving. The flight of one hundred and 
twenty-four steps is then thronged by merchants of Madonna wares, 
who spread them out over the steps and hang them against the walls 
and balustrades. Here are to be seen all sorts of curious little coloured 
prints of the Madonna and Child of the most extraordinary quality, 
little bags, pewter medals, and crosses stamped with the same figures 
and to be worn on the neck — all offered at once for the sum of one 
baiocco. Here also are framed pictures of the saints, of the Nativity, 
and in a word of all sorts of religious subjects appertaining to the 
season. Little wax dolls, clad in cotton-wool to represent the Saviour, 
and sheep made of the same materials, are also sold by the basket-full. 
Children and Contadini are busy buying them, and there is a deafening 
roar all up and down the steps, of ' Mezzo baiocco, bello colorito, 
mezzo baiocco, la Santissima Concezione Incoronata,' — 'Diario Ro- 
mano, Lunario Romano nuovo,' — ' Riti-atto colorito, medaglia e quad- 
ruccio, un baiocco tutti, un baiocco tutti,' — ' Bambinella di cera, un 
baiocco." None of the prices are higher than one baiocco, except 
to strangers, and generally several articles are held up together, 
enumerated, and proffered with a loud voice for this sum. Mean- 
while men, women, children, priests, beggars, soldiers, and villani 
are crowding up and down, and we crowd with them." — Roba di 
Roma, i. 72. 

" On the sixth of January the lofty steps of Ara-Coeli looked like an 
ant-hill, so thronged were they with people. Men and boys who sold 
little books (legends and prayers), rosaries, pictures of saints, medallions, 
chestnuts, oranges, and other things, shouted and made a great noise. 
Little boys and girls were still preaching zealously in the church, and 
people of all classes were crowding thither. Processions advanced with 
the thundering cheerful music of the fire-corps. II Bambino, a painted 
image of wood, covered with jewels, and with a yellow crown on its 
head, was carried by a monk in white gloves, and exhibited to the people 
from a kind of altar-like erection at the top of the Ara-Coeli steps. 
Everybody dropped down upon their knees ; II Bambino was shown on 
all sides, the music thundered, and the smoking censers were swung." — • 
Frederika Bremer. 

The Coftveiit of Ara-Cozli cont3ms much that is picturesque 
and interesting. S. Giovanni Capistrano was abbot here in 
the reign of Eugenius IV. 

Let us now descend from the CapitoHne Piazza towards 
the Forum, by the staircase on the left of the Palace of the 
Senator. Close to the foot of this staircase is a church, 
very obscure-looking, with some rude frescoes on the ex- 
terior. Yet every one must enter this building, for here are 
the famous Ma7itertine Prisons, excavated from the solid rock 
under the Capitol. 

The prisons are entered through the low Church of S. 
Pietro in Carcere, hung round with votive offerings and 
^blazing with lamps. 



94 WALKS IN ROME. 

"There is an upper chamber in the Mamertine Prisons, over Avhat is 
said to have been — and very possibly may have been— the dungeon of 
St. Peter. The chamber is now fitted up as an oratory, dedicated to 
that saint ; and it lives, as a distinct and separate place, in my recollec- 
tion, too. It is very small and low-roofed ; and the dread and gloom of 
the ponderous, obdurate old prison are on it, as if they had come up in 
a dark mist through the floor. Hanging on the walls, among the 
clustered votive offerings, are objects, at once strangely in keeping and 
strangely at variance with the place — rusty daggers, knives, pistols, 
clubs, divers instruments of violence and murder, brought here, fresh 
from use, and hung up to propitiate offended Heaven ; as if the blood 
upon them would drain off in consecrated air, and have no voice to cry 
with. It is all so silent and so close, and tomblike ; and the dungeons 
below are so black, and stealthy, and stagnant, and naked ; that this 
little dark spot becomes a dream within a dream : and in the vision of 
great churches which come rolling past me like a sea, it is a small wave 
by itself, that melts into no other wave, and does not flow on with the 
rest." — Dickens. 

Enclosed in the church, near the entrance, may be ob- 
served the outer frieze of the prison wall, with the inscription 

C. VIBIUS . C. F. RUFINUS . M. . COCCEIUS . NERVA . COS . EX. 

s . c, recording the names of two consuls of a.d. 22, who 
are supposed to have repaired the prison. Juvenal's descrip- 
tion of the time when one prison was sufficient for all the 
criminals in Rome naturally refers to this building : 

"Felices proavorum atavos, felicia dicas 
Ssecula, qua quondam sub regibus atque tribunis 
Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam." 

Sat. iii. 312. 

A modern staircase leads to the horrible dungeon of Ancus 
Martius, sixteen feet in height, thirty in length, and twenty- 
two in breadth. Originally there was no staircase, and the 
prisoners were let down there, and thence into the lower 
dungeon, through a hole in the middle of the ceiling. The 
large door at the side is a modern innovation, having been 
opened to admit the vast mass of pilgrims during the festa. 
The whole prison is constructed of huge blocks of tufa with- 
out cement. Some remains are shown of the Scalce' GemofiicB, 
so called from the groans of the prisoners — by which the 
bodies were dragged forth to be exposed to the insults of 
the populace or to be thrown into the Tiber. It was by this 
staircase that Cicero came forth and announced the execu- 
tion of the Catiline conspirators to the people in the Forum, 
by the single word Vixcnmt, " they have ceased to live." 
Close to the exit of these stairs the Emperor Vitellius was 



MA ME R TINE PRISONS. 95 

murdered. On the wall by which you descend to the 
lower dungeon is a mark, kissed by the faithful, as the spot 
against which St. Peter's head rested. The lower prison, 
called Robu7% is constructed of huge blocks of tufa, fastened 
together by cramps of iron and approaching horizontally to 
a common centre in the roof It has been attributed from 
early times to Servius Tullius ; but Ampere"* argues against 
the idea that the lower prison was of later origin than the 
upper, and suggests that it is Pelasgic, and older than any 
other building in Rome. It is described by Livy, and 
by Sallust, who depicts its horrors in his account of 
the execution of the Catiline conspirators.! The spot is 
shown to which these victims were attached and strangled 
in turn. In this dungeon, at an earlier period, Appius 
Claudius and Oppius the decemvirs committed suicide (b.c. 
449). Here Jugurtha, king of Mauritania, was starved to 
death by Marius. Here Julius Caesar, during his triumph 
for the conquest of Gaul, caused his gallant enemy Vercinge- 
torix to be put to death. Here Sejanus, the friend and 
minister of Tiberius, disgraced too late, was executed for the 
murder of Drusus. son of the emperor, and for an intrigue 
with his daughter-in-law, Livilla. Here, also, Simon Bar 
Gioras, the last defender of Jerusalem, suffered during the 
triumph of Titus. 

The spot is more interestmg to the Christian world as 
the prison of SS. Peter and Paul, who are said to have been 
bound for nine months to a pillar, which is shown here. 
A fountain of excellent water, beneath the floor of the 
prison, is attributed to the prayers of St. Peter, that he might 
have wherewith to baptize his gaolers, Pro"cessus and Mar- 
tinianus ; but, unfortunately for this ecclesiastical tradition, 
the fountain is described by Plutarch as having existed at 
the time of Jugurtha's imprisonment This fountain pro- 
bably gave the dungeon the name of Tnllianuvi, by which 
it was sometimes known, tidlws meaning a spring. :|: This 
name probably gave rise to the idea of its connection with 
Servius Tullius. 

It is hence that the Roman Catholic Church believes 

* Hist. Rome. 

t "Est locus in carcere quod Tulliamim appellatur, ubi paululiim descenderis ad 
laevam, circiter duodecim pedes humi depressus. Eum muniunt undique parietes, 
atque insiiper camera iapideis fornicibus vincta ; sed incultu, tenebris, odore fo^da, 
atque terribilis ejus facies." — Sail. Catil, Iv. 

X Sec Ampere, Hist. Rom. ii. 31. 



^6 WALKS IN ROME. 

that St. Peter and St. Paul addressed their farewells to the 
Christian world. 

That of St. Peter :— 

"Shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus 
Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be 
able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For 
we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known 
to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Never- 
theless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." — 2nd St. Peter. 

That of St. Paul:— 

"God hath not given us a spirit of fear. . . Be not thou, therefore, 
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner ; but be 
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of 
God. ... I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds ; but 
.the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things, for the 
elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ 
Jesus. ... I charge thee by God and by the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall judge the quick and the dead . . . preach the word ; be instant 
in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsufifering 
and doctrine ; . . . watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the 
work of an evaiigelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now 
ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." — 
2nd Timothy. 

On July 4, the prisons are the scene of a picturesque 
solemnity, when they are visited at night by the religious 
confraternities, who first kneel and then prostrate themselves 
in silent devotion. 

Above the Church of S. Pietro in Carcere, is that of ^. 
Giuseppe dei Falegnami, St. Joseph of the Carpenters. 

" Pourquoi les guides et les antiquaires qui nous ont si souvent montre 
la voie triomphale qui mene au Capitolc et nous en ont taut de fois 
enumere les souvenirs ; pourcjuoi aucun d'eux ne nous a-t-il jamais parle 
de ce qui survint le jour du triomphe dc Tilus, la-bas, prcs des prisons 
Mamertines ? Laisse-moi vous rappeler que ce jour-la le triomphateur, 
au moment de monter au temple, devant verser le sang d'une victime, 
s'arrcta a cette place, tandis que Ton detachait de son cortege un captif 
de \)\\x% haute taille et plus richement vetu que les auti-es, et qu'on 
I'emmenait dans cette prison pour y achever son supplice avec le lacet 
memc qu'il portait autour du cou. Ce ne fiit qu'apres cette immola- 
tion que Ic cortege rcprit sa marche et acheva de monter jusqu'au 
Capitolc ! Ce captif dont on ne daigne nous parler, c'etait Simon Bar- 
Gioras ; c'etait un des trois derniers defenseurs de Jerusalem ; c'etait un 
de ceux qui la defendirent jusqu'au bout, mais helas ! qui la defendirent 
comme des demons maitres d'une ame de laquelle ils ne veulent pas se 
laisscr chasser, et non point comme des champions heroicpies d'une cause 
sacree ct ])erdue. Aussi cette grandeur que la seule infortune sufflt 
souvent pour donncr, die manque a. la calamitc la plus grandc que le 



MAMERTINE PRISONS. 97 

monde ait vue, et les noms attaches a cette immense catastrophe ne 
demeurerent pas meme fameux ! Jean de Giscala, Eleazar, Simon- 
Bar-Gioras ; qui pense a eux aujourd'hui ? L'univers entier proclame 
et venere les noms de deux pauvres juifs qui, quatre ans auparavant, 
dans cette meme prison, avaient eux aussi attendu la supplice ; mais le 
malheur, le courage, la mort tragique des autres, ne leur ont point 
donne la gloire, et un dedaigneux oubli les a effaces de la memoire des 
hommes \ " — {Anne Severin) Mrs. Augustus Craven. 

" Along the sacred way- 
Hither the triumph came, and, winding round 
With acclamation, and the martial clang 
Of instruments, and cars laden with spoil. 
Stopped at the sacred stair that then appeared, 
Then thro' the darkness broke, ample, star-bright. 
As tho' it led to heaven. 'Twas night ; but now 
A thousand torches, turning night to day, 
Blazed, and the victor, springing from his seat, 
Went up, and, kneeling as in fei-vent prayer, 
Entered the Capitol. But what are they 
Who at the foot withdraw, a mournful train 
In fetters ? And who, yet incredulous, 
Now gazing wildly round, now on his sons, 
On those so young, well pleased with all they see. 
Staggers along, the last ? They are the fallen. 
Those who were spared to grace the chariot-wheels ; 
And there they parted, where the road divides, 
The victor and the vanquished — there withdrew ; 
He to the festal board, and they to die. 

" Well might the gi'eat, the mighty of the world. 
They who were wont to fare deliciousiy 
And war but for a kingdom more or less, 
Shrink back, nor from their thrones endure to look, 
To think that way ! Well might they in their pomp 
Humble themselves, and kneel and supplicate 
To be delivered from a dream like this ! " 

Rogers' Italy ^ 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FORUMS AND THE COLISEUM. 

Forum of Trajan — (Sta. Maria di Loreto) — Temple of Mars Ultor — 
Forum of Augustus — Forum of Nerva — Forum of Julius C^sar — 
(Academy of St. Luke)— Forum Romanum — Tribune — Comitium 
— Vutcanal- — Temple of Concord — Temple of Vespasian — Temple 
of Saturn — Arch of Septimius Severus — Temple of Castor and 
Pollux — Pillar of Phocas— Temple of Antoninus and Faustina 



98 WALICS IN ROME. 

— Basilica of Constantine — (Sta. Martina — S. Adriano — Sta. 
Maria — Liberatrice, SS. Cosmo and Damian — Sta. Francesca 
Romana) — Temple of Venus and Rome — Arch of Titus — (Sta. 
Maria Pallara — S. Buonaventura) — Meta Sudans — Arch of Con- 
stantine — Coliseum. 

FOLLOWING the Corso to its end at the Ripresa dei 
Barberi, and turning to the left, we find ourselves at once 
amid the remains of the Forum of Trajan., erected by the 
architect Apollodorus for the Emperor Trajan on his return 
from the Avars of the Danube. This forum now presents 
the appearance of a ravine between the Capitoline and 
Quirinal, but is an artificial hollow, excavated to facilitate 
the circulation of life within the city. An inscription over 
the door of the' column, which overtops the other ruins, 
shows that it was raised in order to mark the depth of 
earth which was removed to construct the forum. The 
earth was formerly as high as the top of the column, 
which reaches, loo Roman feet, to the level of the Pala- 
tine Hill. The forum was sometimes called the " Ulpian," 
from one of the names of the emperor. 

" Before the year A.D. 107 the splendours of the city and the Campus 
beyond it were still separated by a narrow isthmus, thi-onged perhaps by 
the squalid cabins of the poor, and surmounted by the remains of the 
Servian wall which ran along its summit. Step by step the earlier 
emperors had approached with their new fonims to the foot of this ob- 
struction. Domitian was the first to contemplate and commence its 
removal. Nei"va had the fortune to consecrate and to give his own name 
to a portion of his predecessor's construction ; but Trajan undertook to 
complete the bold design, and the genius of his architect triumphed 
over all obstacles, and executed a work which exceeded in extent and 
splendour any previous achievement of the kind. He swept away every 
building on the site, levelled the spot on which they had stood, and laid 
out a vast a[ea of columnar galleries, connecting halls and chambers for 
public userand recreation. The new forum was adorned with two 
libraries, one for Greek, the other for Roman volumes, and .it was 
bounded on the west by a basilica of magnificent dimensions. Beyond 
this basilica, and within the limits of the Campus, the same architect 
(Apollodorus) erected a temple for the worship of Trajan himself; but 
this work probably belonged to the reign of Trajan's successor, and no 
doul)t the Ulpian forum, with all its adjuncts, occupied many years in 
building. The area was adorned witli numerous statues, in whioli the 
iigure of Trajan was frequently repeated, and among its decorations 
were gi-ou)-)S in bronze or marble, representing his most illustrious 
actions. The balustrades and cornices of the whole mass of buildings 
ilamed w ilh gilded images of arms and horses. Here stood the great 
equestrian statue of the emperor ; here was the triumphal arch decreed 
hini by the senate, adorned with sculpture, which Constantine, two 



FORUM OF TRAJAN. 99 

centuries later, transferred without a blusTi to his own, a barbarous act 
of this first Christian emperor, to which however we probably owe their 
preservation to this day from more barbarous spoliation." — Merivale, 
Romans under the Efnpire, ch. Ixiii. 

The beautiful Column of Trajan was erected by the 
senate and people of Rome, a.d. 114. It is composed of 
thirty-four blocks of marble, and is covered with a spiral 
band of bas-reliefs illustrative of the Dacian wars, and 
increasing in size as it nears the top, so that it preserves 
throughout the same proportion when seen from below. It 
was formerly crowned by a statue of Trajan, holding a gilt 
globe, which latter is still preserved in the Hall of Bronzes 
in the Capitol. This statue had fallen from its pedestal 
long before Sixtus V. replaced it by th^ existing figure 
of St. Peter. At the foot of the column was a sepulchral 
chamber, intended to receive the imperial ashes, which 
were however preserved in a golden urn, upon an altar in 
front of it. 

" And apostolic statues climb 
To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime." 

Childe Harold, ex. 

It was while walking in this forum, that Gregory the 
Great, observing one of the marble groups which told of a 
good and great action of Trajan, lamented bitterly that the 
soul of so noble a man should be lost, and prayed earnestly 
for the salvation of the heathen emperor. He was told 
that the soul of Trajan should be saved, but that to ensure 
this he must either himself undergo the pains of purga- 
tory for three days, or suffer earthly pain and sickness 
for the rest of his life. He chose the latter, and never 
after was in health. This incident is narrated by his 
three biographers, John and Paul Diaconus, an4 John of 
Salisbury. 

The forum of Trajan was partly uncovered by Pope 
Paul III. in the sixteenth century, but excavated in its 
present form by the French in 1812. There is much still 
buried under the streets and neighbouring houses. 

"All over the surface of what once was Rome it seems to be the 
effort of Time to bury up the ancient city, as it were a corpse, and he 
the sexton ; so that, in eighteen centuries, the soil over its grave has 
grown very deep, by the slow scattering of dust, and the accumulation 
of more modern decay upon older ruin. , 

"This was tlie fate, also, of Trajan's forum, until some papal anti- 
quary, a few hundred years ago, began to hollow it out again, and dis- 



I 



(^ 



loo tVALICS IN ROME. 

closed the whole height of the gigantic column, wreathed round with 
bas-reliefs of the old emperor's warlike deeds (rich sculpture, which, 
twining from the base to the capital, must be an ugly spectacle for his 
ghostly eyes, if he considers that this huge, storied shaft must be laid 
before the judgment seat, as a piece of the evidence of what he did in 
the flesh). In the area before the column stands a grove of stone, con- 
sisting of the broken and unequal shafts of a vanished temple, still 
keeping a majestic order, and apparently incapable of further demolition. 
The modern edifices of the piazza (wholly built, no doubt, out of the 
spoil of its old magnificence) look down into the hollow space whence ^ 
these pillars rise. 

"One of the immense gray granite shafts lies in the piazza, on the 
verge of the area. It is a great, solid fact of the Past, making old Rome 
actually visible to the touch and eye ; and no study of history, nor force 
of thought, nor magic of song, can so vitally assure us that Rome once 
existed, as this sturdy specimen of what its rulers and people wrought. 
There is still a polish remaining on the hard substance of the pillar, 
the polish of eighteen centuries ago, as yet but half rubbed off." — 
Hawthorne. 

On the north of this forum are two churches : that 
nearest to the Corso is Sta. Maria di Loreto (founded by 
the corporation of bakers in 1500), with a dome sur- 
mounted by a picturesque lantern by Giuliano di Sangallo, 
c. 1506. It contains a statue of Sta. Susanna {not the Su- 
sanna of the Elders) by Fiaimningo (Francois de Quesnoy), 
which is justly considered the chef-d'oeuvre of the Bernini 
School The companion church is called Sta. Maria di 
Viemta, and (like Sta. Maria della Vittoria) commemorates 
the liberation of Vienna from the Turks in 1683, by 
Sobieski, king of Poland. It was built by Innocent XI. 

Leaving the forum at the opposite corner by the Via 
Alessandrina, and passing under the high wall of the Con- 
vent of the Nunziatina, a street, opening on the left, discloses 
several beautiful pillars, which, after having borne various 
names, are now declared to be the remains of the Temple 
of Mars U/tor, built by Augustus in his new forum, which 
was erected in order to provide accommodation for the 
crowds which overflowed the Forum Romanum and Forum 
JuHum. 

" The title of Ultor marked the war and the victory by which, agree- 
ably to his vow, Augustus had avenged his uncle's death. 
" 'Mars ades, et satia scelerato sanguine ferrum ; 

Stetque favor causa pro meliore tuus. 
, Templa feies, et, me victore, vocaberis Ultor. * 

♦ Ovid, Fasti, v. 575, 699. 



TEMPLE OF MARS ULTOR, loi 

*' The porticoes, which extended on each side of the temple with a 
gentle curve, contained statues of distinguished Roman generals. The 
banquets of the Salii were transferred to this temple, a circumstance 
which led to its identification, from the discovery of an inscription here 
recording the viansiones of these priests. Like the priesthood in gen- 
eral, they appear to have been fond of good living, and there is a well- 
known anecdote of the Emperor Claudius having been lured by the 
steams of their banquet from his judicial functions in the adjacent forum, 
to come and take part in their feast. The temple was appropriated 
to meetings of the senate in which matters connected with wars and 
triumphs were debated. . . . Here while Tiberius was building a temple 
to Augustus upon the Palatine, his golden statue reposed upon a 
couch." — Dyers City of Rome. 

"Up to the time of Augustus, the god Mars, the reputed father of 
the Roman race, had never, it is said, enjoyed the distinction of a temple 
within the walls. He was then introduced into the city which he had 
saved from overthrow and ruin ; and the aid he had lent in bringing the 
murderers of Caesar to justice, was signalised by the title of Avenger, by 
which he was now specially addressed. . . . The temple of Mars 
Ultor, of gigantic proportions, ' Et deus est ingens et opus,' was erected 
in the new forum of Augustus at the foot of the Capitoline and Quirinal 
hills." — Merivale, Romans tnider the Empi7-e. 

"Ce temple etait particulierement cher a Auguste. II voulut que 
les magistrats en partissent pour aller dans leurs provinces ; que I'honneur 
du triomphe y fiit decerne, et que les triomphateurs y fissent hommage a 
Mars Vengeur de leur couronne et de leur sceptre ; que les drapeaux 
pris a I'ennemi y fussent conserves ; que les chefs de la cavalerie 
executassent des jeux en avant des marches de ce temple ; enfin que 
les censeurs, en sortant de leur charge, y plantassent le clou sacre, vieil 
usage etrusque j usque-la attache au Capitole. Auguste desirait que ce 
temple fonde par lui prit I'importance du Capitole. 

"II fit dedier le temple par ses petit-fils Caius et Lucius ; et son 
autre petit-fils, Agrippa, a la tete des plus nobles enfants de Rome, y 
celebra le jeu de Troie, qui rappelait I'origine pretendue troyenne de 
Cesar ; deux cent soixante lions furent egorges dans la cirque, c'etait 
leur place ; deux troupes de gladiateurs combattirent dans les Septa 
ou se faisaient les elections au temps de la republique, comme si 
Auguste eut voulu, par ces combats qui se livraient en I'honneur 
des morts, celebrer les funerailles de la liberie romaine."- — Amph-e, 
Emp, i, 224. 

The temple of Mars stands at the north-eastern corner 
of the magnificent Forum of Augustus, which extended from 
here as far as the present Via Alessandrina, surpassing in size 
the forum of Julius Caesar, to which it was adjoining. It 
was of sufficient size to be frequently used for fights of 
animals (venationes). Among its ornaments were statues of 
Augustus triumphant and of the subdued provinces — wdth 
inscriptions illustrative of the great deeds he had accom- 
pHshed there; also a picture by Apelles representing War 



I02 WALKS IN ROME. 

with her hands bound behind her, seated upon a pile of arms. 
Part of the boundary wall exists, enclosing on two sides the 
remains of the temple of Mars Ultor, and is constructed of 
huge masses of peperino. The arch, in the wall close to 
the temple, is known as Arco dei Pantani. The sudden 
turn in the wall here is interesting as commemorating a 
concession made to the wish of some proprietors, who were 
unwilling to part with their houses for the sake of the 
forum. 

'* C'est I'histoire du moulin de Sans-Souci, qui du reste parait n'etre 
pas vraie. 

"II est piquant d'assister aujourd'hui a ce menagement d'Auguste 
pour I'opinion qu'il voulait gagner. En voyant le mur s'inflechir parce- 
qu'il a fallu epargnei* quelques maisons, on croit voir la toute-puissance 
d'Auguste gauchir a dessein devant les interets particuliers, seule puis- 
sance avec laquelle il reste a compter quand tout interet general a 
disparu. L'obliquite de la politique d'Auguste est visible dans I'obliquite 
de ce mur, qui montre et rend pour ainsi dire palpable le manege adroit 
de la tyrannic, se deguisant pour se fonder. Le mur biaise, comme 
biaisa constamment I'empereur." — Ampere, Einp. i. 233. 

(The street on the left — passing the Arco dei Pantani — 
the Via della Salita del Grillo, commemorates the approach 
to the castle of the great mediaeval family Del Grillo ; the 
street on the right leads through the ancient Suburra.) 

At the corner of the next street (Via della Croce Bianca) 
■ — on the left of the Via Alessandrina — is the ruin called the 
" Colonnace," being part of the Portico of Fallas Minerva^ 
which decorated the Forum Transitorhnn, begun, by Domi- 
tian, but dedicated in the short reign of Nerva, and hence 
generally called the Forum of Nerva, on account of the exe- 
cration with which the memory of Domitian was regarded. 
Up to the seventeenth century seven magnificent columns of 
the temple of Minerva were still standing, but they were 
destroyed by Paul V., who used part of them in building the 
Fontana Paolina. The existing remains consist of two half- 
buried Corinthian columns with a figure of Minerva, and a 
frieze of bas-reliefs. 

" Les bas-reliefs du forum de Nerva representent des femmes occupees 
des travaux d'aiguille, auxquels presidait Minerve. Quand on se 
rappelle, que Domitien avait place a Albano, pres du temple de cette 
deesse, un college de pretres.qui imitaient la parure et les moeurs de 
femmes, on est tent^ de croire qu'il y a dans le choix des subjets figures 
ici une allusion aux habitudes effeminees de ces pretres." — Amp^re^ 
Emp. ii. 161. 

"The portico of the temple of Minerva is most rich and beautiful in 



FORUM OF 7ULIUS CAESAR. 103 

architecture, but woefully gnawed by time, and shattered by violence, 
besides being buried midway in the accumulation of the soil, that rises 
over dead Rome like a flood -tide. Within this edifice of antique 
sanctity a baker's shop is now established, with an entrance on one 
side ; for everywhere, the remnants of old grandeur and divinity 
have been made available for the meanest neccessities of to-day." — 
Hawthonie. 

It was in this forum that Nerva caused Vetronius Turinus, 
who had trafficked with his court interest, to be suffocated 
with smoke, a herald proclaiming at the time, " Fumo puni- 
tur qui vendidit fumum." 

Returning a short distance down the Via Alessandrina, 
and turning (left) down the Via Bonella, we traverse the site 
of the Forum of 'yidius C(Esar, upon which 4000 sestertia 
(800,000/.) were expended, and which is described by 
Dion-Cassius as having been more beautiful than the 
Forum Romanum. It was ornamented with a Temple of 
Venus Genetrix — from whom Julius Caesar claimed to 
be descended — which contained a statue of the goddess 
by Archesilaus, a statue of Csesar himself, and a group 
of Ajax and Medea by Timomacus. Here, also, Caesar 
had the effrontery to place the statue of his mis- 
tress, Cleopatra, by the side of that of the goddess. In 
front of the temple stood a bronze figure of a horse — 
supposed to be the famous Bucephalus — the work of 
Lysippus. 

"Cedat equus Latias qui, contra templa Diones, 
Cassarei stat sede Fori. Quem tradere es ausus 
Pellaeo Lysippe Duci, mox Ctesaris ora 
Aurata cervice tulit." Statins, Silv. i. 84. 

The only visible remains of this forum are some courses 
of huge square blocks of stone (Lapis Gabinus), in a dirty 
court. 

Part of the site of the forum of Julius Caesar is now occu- 
pied — on the right near the end of the Via Bonella — by the 
Accademia di San Luca, founded in 1595, Federigo Zuccaro 
being its first director. The collections are open from 9 
to 5 daily. A ceiling representing Bacchus and Ariadne, is 
by Guido. The best pictures are : — 

Bacchus and Ariadne : Poiissin, 

Vanity : Paul Veronese. 

Calista and the Nymphs : Titian. 

The murder of Lucretia : Guido Cajnacci, 

Fortune : Guido. 



104 WALK'S IN ROME. 

Innocent XI. : Velasquez. 

The Saviour and the Pharisee : Titian. 

A lovely fresco of a child : Raphael. 

St. Lvike painting the Virgin : Atti-ibiited to Raph.icl. 
*St. Luke painting the Virgin has been a frequent and favourite sub- 
ject. The most famous of all is a picture in the Academy of St. Luke, 
ascribed to Raphael. Here St. Luke, kneeling on a footstool before an 
easel, is busied painting the Virgin with the Child in her arms, who 
appears to him out of heaven, sustained by clouds ; behind St. Luke 
stands Raphael himself, looking on." — Mrs. Janieson. 

A skull preserved here was long supposed to be that of 
Raphael, but his true skull has since been found in his 
grave in the Pantheon. 

"On a longtemps venere ici un crane que Ton croyait etre celui de 
Raphael ; crane etroit sur lequel les phrenologistes auront prononce de 
vains oracles, devant lequel on aura bien profon dement reve et qui 
n'etait que celui d'un obscur chanoine bien innocent de toutes ces ima- 
ginations."— y^. Dn Pays. 

Just beyond St. Luca, we enter the Forum Romanum. 



The interest of Rome comes to its climax in the Forum. 
In spite of all that is destroyed, and all that is buried, so 
much still remains to be seen, and every stone has its story. 
Even without entering into all the vexed archaeological 
questions which have filled the volumes of Canina, Bunsen, 
Niebuhr, and many others, the occupation which a traveller 
interested in history Avill find here is all but inexhaustible ; 
and, after the disputes of centuries, the different sites seem 
now to be verified with tolerable certainty. The study of 
the Roman Forum is complicated by the succession of public 
edifices by which it has been occupied, each period oi 
Roman history having a different set of buildings, and each 
in a great measure supplanting that which went before. 
Another difficulty has naturally arisen from the exceedingly 
circumscribed space in which all these buildings have to l)e 
arranged, and which shows that many of the ancient temples 
must have been mere chapels, and the so-called "lakes" 
little more than fountains. 

"This spot, where the senate had its assemblies, Avhere the rostra 
were placed, where the destinies of the world Avere discussed, is the 
most celebrated and the most classical of ancient Rome. It was adorned 
with the most magnificent monuments, which were so crowded upon 
one another, that their heaped-up ruins are not sufficient for all the names 
which are handed down to us by histoiy. The course of centuries has 



FORUM ROMA NUM. 105 

overthrown the Fonim, and made it impossible to define; the level of 
the ancient soil is t\yenty-four feet below that of to-day, and however 
great a desire one may feel to reproduce the past, it must be acknow- 
ledged that this very difference of level is a terrible obstacle to the 
powers of imagination ; again, the uncertainties of archaeologists are 
discouraging to curiosity and the desire of illusion. For more than three 
centuries learning has been at work upon this field of ruins, without 
being al)le even to agree upon its bearings ; some describing it as 
extending from north to south, others from east to west. Following the 
common opinion, its length was from the arch of Septimius Severus 
to the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, and its breadth from the 
church of S. Adriano to the steps of the Basilica Julia. Equal uncer- 
tainty prevails as to many of the existing ruins. The origin of the 
Forum goes back to the alliance of the Romans and Sabines. It 
Avas a space surrounded by marshes, which extended between the Pala- 
tine and the Capitol, occupied by the two colonies, and serving as a 
neutral ground where they could meet. The Curtian Lake was situated 
in the midst. Constantly adorned under the republic and the empire, 
it appears that it continued to exist until the eleventh century. Its total 
ruin dates from Robert Guiscard, who, when called to the assistance of 
Gregory VII., left it a heap of ruins. Abandoned for many centuries, 
it became a receptacle for rubbish, which gradually raised the level of 
the soil. About 1547, Paul III. began to make excavations in the 
Forum. Then the place became a cattle-market, and the glorious name 
of Forum Romanum changed into that of Campo Vaccino. 

"The Forum was surrounded by a portico of two stories, the lower 
of which was occupied by shops (tabernoe). In the beginning of the 
sixth century of Rome, two fires destroyed part of the edifices with 
which it had been embellished. This was an opportunity for isolating the 
Forum, and basilicas and temples were raised in succession along its 
sides, which in their turn were partly destroyed in the fire of Nero. 
Domitian rebuilt a part, and added the temple of Vespasian, and 
Antoninus that of Faustina." — A. Du Pays. 

The few excavations which have been made in the Forum 
are for the most part due to the generosity of Georgiana, 
Duchess of Devonshire. The papal government has always 
displayed the most extraordinary apathy about extending 
them, and, when a large excavation was made in the winter 
of 1869-70, by the British Archaeological Society, in front of 
the Church of Sta. Martina, insisted on its being immediately 
filled up again, instead of extending it, as might easily have 
been done, to join the excavation which had long existed 
on the Clivus Capitolinus. Were the roads leading to the 
Forum to be closed, and a large body of efficient labourers 
set to work, the whole of the Roman Forum and its surround- 
ings might be laid bare in a month, without any injury to 
the interesting churches in its neighbourhood. At present, 
even that part which is disinterred is cut up by a number of 



io6 WALKS IN ROME. 

raised causeways, which distract the eye and mar the general 
efifect. 

If we stand on the causeway in front of the arch of 
Septimius Severus, and turn towards the Capitol, we look 
upon the Clivus Capitolinus, which is perfectly crowded wdth 
historical sites and fragments, viz. : — 

1. The modern Capitol, resting on the Tahiilarium. This 
is one of the earliest architectural relics in Rome. It is 
built in the Etruscan style, of huge blocks of tufa oi 
peperino placed long- and cross-ways alternately. It was 
formerly composed of two stages called Camellaria. Only 
the lower now remains. It contained the tables of the laws. 
The corridor which remains in the interior is used as a mu- 
seum of architectural fragments. The Tabularium probably 
communicated with the ^rai'ium in the temple of Saturn. 

2. On the right of the excavated space, and nearest the 
Tabularium, the site of the Tribune^ in front of which were 
the Rostra^ to which the head of Octavius was affixed by 
Marius, and the head and hand of Cicero by Antony, and 
where Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, spat in his dead face, 
and pierced his inanimate tongue with the pin which she 
wore in her hair. In front of the rostrum were the statues 
of the three Sibyls called Tria Fata. 

3. Below, a little more to the right, is the site of the Co- 
mitium, where the survivor of the Horatii was condemned to 
death, and saved by the voice of the people. Here, also, 
was the trophied pillar which bore the arms of the Curiatii. 
In the area of the Comitium grew the famous fig-tree which 
was always preserved here in commemoration of the tree 
under which Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf, 
and beneath which was a bronze representation of the wolf 
and the children. 

4. A little more to the left, is the site of the Vnlcanal, so 
called from an altar dedicated to Vulcan, a platform (still 
defined) where, in the earliest times, Romulus and Tatius 
used to meet on inteniiediate ground and transact affairs 
common to both ; and where Brutus was seated, when, 
M'ithout any change of countenance, he saw his two sons 
beaten and beheaded. Adjoining the Vulcanal was the 
Grcccostasis, where foreign ambassadors waited before they 
were admitted to an audience of the senate. 

5. Below the Vulcanal, and just behind the Arch of 



TEMPLE OF SATURN. 107 

Severus, is the site of the Te^nple of Coficord^ dedicated 
with blasphemous inappropriateness, B.C. 121, by the consul 
Opimius, immediately after the murder of Caius Gracchus. 
Here Cicero pronounced his orations against Catiline before 
the senate. A pavement of coloured marbles remains. At 
its base are still to be seen some small remains of the Colonna 
Mania^ which was surmounted by the statue of C. Maenius, 
who decorated the rostra with the iron beaks of vessels' taken 
in war. 

6. The three beautiful columns which are still standing 
were attributed to a temple of Jupiter Tonans, but are now 
decided to belong to the Temple of Vespasian. The engrav- 
ings of Piranesi represent them as buried almost to their 
capitals, and they remained in this state until they were dis- 
interred during the first French occupation. The space was 
so limited in this part of Rome, that in order to prevent 
encroaching upon the street Clivus Capitolinus, which 
descends the hill between this temple and that of Saturn, 
the temple of Vespasian was raised on a kind of terrace, 
and the staircase which led to it was thrust in between the 
columns. This temple was restored by Septimius Severus, 
and to this the letters on the entablature refer, being part of 
the word Resiitue7'e. Instruments of sacrifice are sculptured 
on the frieze. 

7. On the left of the excavated space, close beneath the 
Tabularium, a low range of columns recently re-erected 
represents the building called the School of Xant/ms, cham- 
bers, for the use of the scribes and persons in the service of 
the curule sediles, which derived their name from Xanthus, 
a freedman, by whom they were rebuilt. 

8. The eight Ionic columns still standing, part of the 
Temple of Saftirn, the ancient god of the Capitol. Before 
this temple Pompey sate surrounded by soldiers, listening 
to the orations which Cicero was delivering from the rostrum, 
Vv'hen he received ,the personal address, "Te enim jam 
appello, et ea voce ut me exaudire possis." Here the tribune 
Metellus flung himself before the door and vainly attempted 
to defend the treasure of the y^rai'ium in this temple 
against Julius Caesar. The present remains are those of an 
indifferent and late renovation of an earlier temple, being 
composed of columns which differ in diameter, and a frieze 
put together from fragments which do not belong to one 

I 



io8 WALKS IN ROME. 

another. The original temple was built by Tarquin, and 
was supposed to mark the site of the ancient Sabine altar of 
the god and the Hmit of the wood of refuge mentioned bv 
Virgil. 

9. Just below the Temple of Saturn is the site of the Arch 
of Tiberms, erected, according to Tacitus, upon the recovery 
by Germanicus of the standards which Varus had lost. 

10. The remains of the Milliarium Aiiremn, which formed 
the upper extremity of a wall faced with marbles, ending 
near the arch of Severus in a small conical pyramid. Dis- 
tances without the walls were inscribed upon the Milliarium 
Aureum, as distances within the walls were upon the 
pyramid (from which in this case they were also measured) 
which bore the name of Umbilicus Ro7nce. The Via 
Sacra, which is still visible, descended from the Capitol 
between the temples of Saturn and Vespasian, — being 
known here as the Clivus Capitolinus, and passed to the 
left of— 

11. The A7xh of Septimius Severus, which was erected by 
the senate a.d. 205, in honour of that emperor and his two 
sons, Caracalla and Geta. It is adorned with bas-reliefs 
relating his victories in the east, — tws entry into Babylon 
and the tower of the temple of Belus are represented. A 
curious memorial of imperial history may be observed in the 
inscription, where we may. still discern the erasure made by 
Caracalla after he had put his brother Geta to death in a.d. 
213, for the sake of obliterating his memory. The added 
words are optimis fortissimisqve principibus — but the 
ancient inscription p. sept. lvc. fil. get^. nobihss. 
CiESARi, has been made out by painstaking decipherers. In 
one of the piers is a staircase leading to the top of the arch 
which was formerly (as seen from coins of Severus and 
Caracalla) adorned by a car drawn by six horses abreast, and 
containing figures of Severus and his sons. It was in front 
of this arch that the statue of Marcus Aurelius stood, which 
is now at the Capitol. 

**Les proportions de I'arc de Septime-Severe sont encore belles. 
L'asppct en est imposant ; il est solide sans etre lourd. La grande 
inscription ou se lisent les cpithetes victorieuses qui rappellent les succes 
militaires de I'empereur, Parthique, Dacique, Adiabcnique, se deploie sur 
une vaste surface et donne k rentablement un air de majeste qu'admirent 
les artistes. Cette inscription est doublenient historique; clle rappelle 
les campagnes de Severe ct la tragedie douiestique qui aprcs lui ensang- 



TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX. 109 

lanta sa famille, le meurtre d'un de ses fils iminole par I'autre, et 
racharnement de celui-ci a poursuivre la memoire du frere quil avait 
fait assassiner. Le nom de (}eta a ete visiblement efface par Caracalla. 
La meme chose se remarque dans une inscription sur bronze qu'on voit 
au Capitole et sur le petit arc du Marche aux boeufs dent j'ai parle, 
ou Timage de Geta a ete effacee comme son nom. Caracalla ne permit 
pas meme a ce nom proscrit de se cacher parmi les hieroglyphes. En 
Egypte, ceux qui composaient le nom de Geta ont ete grattes sur les 
monuments."— ^;'«/^r^, Emp. ii. 278. 

(To descend into the depth of the Forum and examine the 
monuments closely, it is necessary to ask admittance from a 
stonemason, who lives in the first house on the left of the 
Clivus Capitolinus.) 

The platform on which we have been standing leads to 
the Via della Consolazione, occupying the site of the ancient 
Vicus y^ugarms, where Augustus erected an altar to Ceres, 
and another to Ops Augusta, the goddess of wealth. (In this 
street, on the left, is a good cinque-cento doorway.) Where 
this street leaves the Forum was the so-called Lacus ^r- 
viliiis, a basin which probably derived its name from Servilius 
Ahala (who slew the philanthropist Sp. Maelius with a dagger 
near this very spot), and which was encircled with a ghastly 
row of heads in the massacres under Sylla. This fountain 
was adorned by M. Aggrippa with a figure of a hydra. The 
right side of the Forum is now occupied for a considerable 
distance by the disinterred remains of the Basilica ytdia, 
begun by Julius Caesar, and finished by Augustus, who 
dedicated it in honour of his daughter. A basilica of this 
description was intended partly as a Law Court and partly 
as an Exchange. In this basilica the judges called Centum- 
viri held their courts, which were four in number : 

"Jam clamor, centumque viri, densumque coronae 
Valgus : et infanti Julia tecta placent." 

Martial, vi. ^/. 38. 

Beyond the basilica are three beautiful columns which 
belong to a restoration of the Temple of Castor and Pol- 
lux, dedicated by Postumius, B.C. 484. Here costly sacri- 
fices were always offered in the ides of July, at the 
anniversary of the battle of the Lake Regillus, after which 
the Roman knights, richly clothed, crowned with olive, and 
bearing their trophies, rode past it in military procession, 
starting from the temple of Mars outside the Porta Capena. 
The entablature which the three columns support is of great 



no WALKS IN ROME. 

richness, and the whole fragment is considered to be one 
of the finest existing specimens of the Corinthian order. 
None of the Roman ruins have given rise to more discussion 
than this. It has perpetually changed its name. Bunsen 
and many other authorities considered it to belong to the 
temple of Minerva Chalcidica ; but as it is known that the 
position of the now discovered Basilica Julia was exactly 
jjetween the temple of Saturn and that of Castor, and a 
passage of Ovid describes the latter as being close to the 
site of the temple of Vesta, which is also ascertained, it 
seems almost certain now that it belonged to the temple of 
the Dioscuri. Dion-Cassius mentions that Caligula made 
this temple a vestibule to his house on the Palatine. 

Here, on the right, branches off the Via dei Fienili, once 
the Vicus Ttcscus, or Etruscan quarter (see Chap, V.), leading 
to the Circus Maximus. At its entrance was the bronze 
statue of A^ertumnus, the god of Etruria, and patron of the 
quarter. The long trough-shaped fountain here, at which 
such picturesque groups of oxen and buffaloes are constantly 
standing, is a memorial of the Lake of 'yutiaiia the sister of 
Turnus, or as she was sometimes described, the wife of 
Janus the Sabine war-god. This fountain, for such it must 
have been, was dried up by Paul V. 

*' At quae venturas prcecedit sexta kalendas, 
Hac sunt Ledaeis templa dicata deis. 
Fratribus ilia deis fratres de gente deorum 
Circa Juturnse composuere lacus." 

Ovid, Fast. i. 705. 

Here, close under the Palatine, is the site of the 
famous Temple of Vesta, in which the sacred fire was pre- 
served, with the palladium saved from Troy. On the altar 
of this temple, blood was sprinkled annually from the tail of 
the horse which was sacrificed to Mars in the Campus- 
Martius. The foundation of the temple was attributed to 
Numa, but the worship must have existed in Pelasgic times, 
as the mother of Romulus was a vestal. It was burnt 
down in the fire of Nero, rebuilt and again burnt down 
under Commodus, and probably restored for the last time 
by Heliogabalus. Here, during the consulate of the young 
Marius, the high priest Scsevola was murdered, splashing 
the image of Vesta with his blood, — and here (a.d. d'^) 
Piso, the adopted son of Galba, was murdered in the 



SITE OF THE TEMPLE OF VESTA, in 

sanctuary whither he had fled for refuge, and his head, being 
cut off, was afhxed to the rostra. Behind the temple, along 
the lower ridge of the Palatine, stretched the sacred grove of 
Vesta, and the site of the Church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice 
was occupied by the Atrium Vestce, a kind of convent for 
the vestal virgins. Here Numa Pompilius fixed his resid- 
ence, hoping to conciliate both the Latins of the Palatine 
and the Sabines of the Capitoline by occupying a neutral 
ground between them. 

" Quceris iter? dicam, vicinum Castora, canae 

Transibis Vest?e, virgineamque domum, 

Inde sacro veneranda petes palatia Clivo." 

Martial, i. Ep. 70. 
*' Hie focus est Vestas, qui Pallada servat et ignem. 
Hie fuit antiqui regia parva Numae." 

Ovid, TrisL iii. El. I. 
*' Hie locus exiguus, qui sustinet atria Vesta?, 
Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numae. 
Forma tamen templi, quae nunc manet, ante fuisse 

Dicitur ; et formae causa probanda subest. 
Vesta eadem est, et Terra ; subest vigil ignis utrique, 

Significant sedem terra focusque suam. 
Terra pilas similis, nullo fulcimine nixa, 
Aere subjecto tam grave pendet onus. 
Arte Syracosia suspensus in aere clause 

Stat globus, immensi parva figura poli ; 
Et quantum a summis, tantum secessit ab imis 

Terra. Quod ut fiat, forma I'otunda facit. 
Par facies templi : nullus procurrit ab illo 
Angulus. A pluvio vindicat imbre tholus." 

Ovid, Fast. vi. 263. 
** Servat et Alba, Lares, et quorum lucet in aris 
Ignis adhuc Phrygius, nullique adspecta virorum 
Pallas, in abstruso pignus memorabile templo." 

Ltican, ix. 992. 

Close to tne temple of Vesta was the Regia, where Julius 
Caesar lived (as pontifex maximus) — where Pompeia his 
second wife admitted her lover Clodius in the disguise of a 
woman to the mysteries of the Bona Dea — whence Caesar went 
forth to his death — and from which his last wife Calpurnia 
rushed forth with loud outcries to receive his dead body. 

Somewhere in this part of the Forum was the famous 
Curtian Lake, so called from Mettus Curtius, a Sabine 
warrior, who with difficulty escaped from its quagmires to 
the Capitol after a battle between Romulus and Tatius."^ 

* Statius, i. 6. Livy, vii. 6. 



112 WALKS IN ROME. 

Tradition declares that the quagmire aftenvards became a 
gulf, which an oracle declared would never close until that 
which was most important to the Roman people was sacri- 
ficed to it. Then the young Marcus Curtius, equipped in 
fi.ill armour, leapt his horse into the abyss, exclaiming that 
nothing was more important to the Roman people than 
arms and courage ; and the gulf was closed.* Two altars 
were afterwards erected on the site to the two heroes, and 
a vine and an ohve tree grew there, t 

" Hoc, ubi nunc fora sunt, udte tenuere paludes : 
Amne redundatis fossa madebat aquis. 
Curtius ille lacus, siccas qui sustinet aras. 
Nunc solida est tellus, sed lacus ante fuit." 

Ovid, Fast. vi. 401. 

Some fountain, like those of Servilius and Juturna, bearing 
the name of Lacus Curtius must have existed on this site to 
imperial times, for the Emperor Galba was murdered there. 

" A single cohort still surrounded Galba, when the standard-bearer 
tore the Emperor's image from his spear-head, and dashed it on the 
ground. The soldiers were at once decided for Otho ; swords were 
drawn, and every symptom of favour for Galba amongst the bystanders 
was repressed by menaces, till they dispersed and fled in horror from the 
Forum. At last, the bearers of the emperor's litter overturned it at the 
Curtian pool beneath the Capitol. In a few moments enemies swarmed 
around his body. A few words he muttered, which have been diversely 
reported : some said that they were abject and unbecoming ; others 
affirmed that he presented his neck to the assassin's sword, and bade 
him strike ' if it were for the good of the republic ; ' but none listened, 
none perhaps heeded the words actually spoken ; Galba" s throat was 
pierced, but even the author of his mortal wound was not ascertained, 
while his breast being protected by the cuirass, his legs and arms were 
hacked with repeated gashes." — Merivale, vii. 73. 

Near this part of the Forum stood a colossal statue of 
Domitian, in bronze. 

"Ipse loci custos, cujus sacrata vorago, 
Famosusque lacus nomen memorabile servat." 

Staihis, Silv. i. 66. 

Adjoining the Basilica Julia is the Column of Phocas^ 
raised to that emperor by the exarch Smaragdus in 608. 
This is — 

'* The nameless column Math a buried base," 

of Byron, but is now neither nameless nor buried, its pedestal 
having been laid bare by the Duchess of Devonshire in 

* Livy, vii. 6. Yarn iv. 32. t Pliny, xv. i8. 



COL UMN OF PI 10 CAS. 1 1 3 

1 813, and bearing an inscription which shows an origin 
that no one ever anticipated. 

**In the age of Phocas (602 — 610), the art of erecting a column hke 
that of Trajan or M. Aurelius had been lost. A large and handsome 
Corinthian pillar, taken from some temple or basilica, was therefore 
placed in the Forum, on a huge pyramidal basis quite out of proportion 
to it, and was surmounted with a statue of Phocas in gilt bronze. It 
has so little the appearance of a monumental column, that for a long 
while it was thought to belong to some ruined building, till, in 1813, 
the inscription was discovered. The name of Phocas had, indeed, been 
erased ; but that it must have been dedicated to him is shown by the 
date. . . . The base of this column, discovered by the excavations 
of 1 816 to have rested on the ancient pavement of the Forum, proves 
that this former centre of Roman life was still, at the beginning of the 
seventh century, unencumbered with ruins." — Dyer's History of the City 
of Rome. 

"Ce monument et I'inscription qui I'accompagne sont precieijx pour 
I'histoire, car ils montrent le dernier terme de I'avilissement oii Rome 
devait tomber. Smaragdus est le premier magistrat de Rome, — mais 
ce magistrat est un prefet, I'elu du pouvoir imperial et non de ses con- 
citoyens ; — il commande, non, il est vrai, a la capitale du monde, mais 
au chef-lieu du duche de Rome. Ce prefet, qui n'est connu de I'histoire 
que par ses laches menagements envers les Barbares, imagine de voler 
une colonne a un beau temple, au temple d'un empereur de quelque 
merite, pour la dedier a un execrable tyran monte sur le trone par des 
assassinats, au meurtrier de 1' empereur Maurice, a I'ignoble Phocas, que 
tout le monde connait, grace a Corneille, qui I'a encore trope menage. 
Et le plat drole ose appeler tres-clement celui qui fit egorger sous les; 
yeux de Maurice ses quatre fils avant de I'egorger lui-meme. II decerne 
le titre de triomphateur a Phocas, qui laissa conquerir par Chosroes une 
bonne part de I'empire. II ose ecrire : 'pour les innombrables bienfaits 
de sa piete, pour le repos procure a I'ltalie et a la liberte.' Ainsi 
I'histoire monumentale de la Rome de I'empire finit honteusement par 
un hommage ridicule de la bassesse a la violence." — Ampere^ Enip. 
ii. 389. 

At the foot of the CHvus Capitolinus, on the left (looking 
towards the Arch of Titus) stood the Temple of yanus 
Quirmus, between the great Forum and the Forum of Julius 
Caesar, and near the ascent to the Porta Janualis, by which 
Tarpeia admitted the Sabines to the Capitol. Procopius, 
in the sixth century, saw the little bronze temple of Janus 
still standing. This was one of many temples of the great 
Sabine god. 

*' Quum tot sint Jani ; cur stas sacratus in uno, 
Hie ubi juncta foris templa duobus habes ?" 

Ovid, Fast. i. 257. 

This was the temple which was the famous index of 



114 ^A LKS IN ROME. 

peace and war, closed by Augustus for the third time from 
its foundation after the victory of Actium.* 

*'. . . et vacuum duellis 

Janum Quirini clausit, et ordinem 
Rectum, et vaganti fraena licentise 
Injecit." 

Horace, Ode iv. 15. 

Besides this temple there were three arches, whose sites 
are unknown, dedicated to Janus in different parts of the 
Forum. 

** . . Hsec Janus summus ab imo 

Perdocet " 

Horace, Ep. i. I, 54. 

The central arch was the resort of brokers and money- 
lenders.t 

". . Postquam omnis res mea Janum 
Ad medium fracta est." 

Hor. Sat. ii. 3, 18. 

Along this side of the Forum stood the Taber?ice Argen- 
taricB, the silversmiths' shops, and beyond them — probably 
in front of S. Adriano — were the Tabernse Novae, where 
Virginia was stabbed by her father with a butcher's knife, 
which he had seized from one of the stalls, saying, " This, 
my child, is the only way to keep thee free," as he plunged 
it into her heart.J Near this also was the statue of Venus 
Cloacina.§ 

The front of the Church of S. Adriano is a fragment of 
the Basilica of yEmilius Faulus, built with part of 1500 
talents which Caesar had sent from Gaul to win him over 
to his party. This basilica occupied the site of the famous 
Curia of Tullus Hostilius. 

"La se reunit, pour la premiere fois sous un toit, le conseil des 
anciens rois que le savant Properce, avec un sentiment vrai des anti- 
quites romaines, nous montre tel qu'il etait dans I'origine, se rassem- 
blant au son de la trompe pastorale dans un pre, comme le peuple dans 
certains petits cantons de la Suisse." — Amph-e, Hist. Rovi. ii. 310. 

The Curia was capable of containing six hundred sena- 
tors, their number in the time of the Gracchi. It had no 
tribune, — each speaker rose in turn and spoke in his place. 
Here was " the hall of assembly in which the fate of the 
world was decided." The Curia was destroyed by fire, 

* Suetonius, Aug. 22. t Cicero de Off. ii. 25. J Livy, iiL 48. 

§ Pliny, XV. 29. 



SITE OF THE TEMPLE OF JULIUS C^SAR. 115 

which it caught from the funeral pyre of Clodius. Around 
the Curia stood many statues of Romans who had rendered 
especial service to the state. The Curia Juha occupied the 
site of the Curia HostiHa in the early part of the reign of 
Augustus. Close by the old Curia was the Basilica Porcia, 
built by Cato the Censor, which was likewise burnt down 
at the funeral of Clodius. Near this the base of the rostral 
column, Colo?ina Didlia, has been found. Beyond this, 
on the left, are the remains of the Temple of Antoninus and 
Faustina, erected by the flattery of the senate to the 
memory of the licentious Empress Faustina, the faithless 
wife of Antoninus Pius, whom they elevated to the rank 
of a goddess. Her husband, dying before its completion, 
was associated in her honours, and the inscription, which 
still remains on the portico, is " Divo antonino et DiviE 
FAUSTINA. EX. s. c." The front of the temple is adorned 
with eight columns of cipolino, forty-three feet high, sup- 
porting a frieze ornamented with griffins and candelabra. 
The effect of these remains would be magnificent if the 
modern road were removed, and the temple were laid bare 
in its full height, with the twenty-one steps which formerly 
led to it. It is also greatly injured by the hideous Church 
of S. Lorenzo in Miranda, which encloses the cella of the 
temple, and whose name, says Ampere, naively expresses the 
admiration in which its builders held these remains.* 

Almost opposite this, near the temple of Castor, and 
facing the Capitol, stood, on a lofty base, the small Temple 
of Julius CcEsar (^des Divi Julii),t surrounded with a 
colonnade of closely-placed columns and surmounted by a 
statue of the deified triumvir. This was the first temple in 
Rome which was dedicated to a mortal. 

"Fratribus assimilis, quos proxima templa tenentes 
Divus ab excelsa Julius aede videt." 

Ovid, Pont. El. ii. 2. 
*' Hanc animam interea c3eso de corpore raptam 
Fac jubar, ut semper Capitolia nostra Forumque 
Divus ab excelsa prospectet Julius oede." 

Id. Mdam. xv. 840. 

Dion Cassius narrates that this temple was erected on 
the spot where the body of Julius was burnt. It was 
adorned by Augustus with the beaks of the vessels taken 

* Ampere, Emp. ii. 223. f Vitruvius, iii. 



1 16 WALKS IN ROME 

in the battle of Actium, and hence obtained the name of 
Rostra JuHa. He also placed here the statue of Venus 
Anadyomene of Apelles, because Caesar had claimed 
descent from that goddess. Here, in a.d. 14, the body of 
Augustus, being brought from Nola, where he died, was 
placed upon a bier, while Tiberius pronounced a funeral 
oration over it, before it was carried to the Campus 
Martins. 

On the left we now reach the Church of SS. Cosmo and 
Damian, considered by Nibby and others to occupy the 
site of a temple of Remus. Ampere has since proved that 
this temple never existed, and that the remains are those 
of a Temple of the Penates^ rebuilt by Augustus. Here 
Valerius Publicola had a house, to which he removed 
from the Velia, in deference to the wishes of the Roman 
people. 

'■ Le sentiment d'efifroi que la demeure feodale des Valerius causait, 
etait pareille a celui qu'inspiraient aux Remains du moyen age les tours 
des barons, que le peuple, des qu'il etait le maitre, se hatait de 
demolir. Valerius n'attendit pas qu'on se portat a cette extremite, 
et il vint habiter au pied de la Velia. C'est le premier triomphe des 
plebeiens sur I'aristocratie romaine et la premiei-e concession de cette 
aristocratic." — Ampere, Hist. Roni. ii. 274. 

A little further on are three gigantic arches, being all 
that remains of the magnificent Basilica of Co7ista?itine, 
which was 320 feet in length and 235 feet in width. The 
existing ruins are those of one of the aisles of the basilica. 
There are traces of an entrance towards the Coliseum. 
The roof was supported by eight Corinthian columns, of 
which one, remaining here till the time of Paul V., was 
removed by him to the piazza of Sta. Maria Maggiore, 
where it still stands. This site was previously occupied by 
the Tejiiple of Peace ^ burnt down in the time of Commodus. 
This temple was the great museum of Rome under the 
empire, and contained the seven-branched candlestick and 
other treasures brought from Jerusalem,* as well as all the 
works of art which had been collected in the palace of 
Nero and which were removed hither by Vespasian. A 
statue of the Nile, with children playing around it, is 
mentioned by Pliny as among the sights in the temple 
of Peace.f 

* Josephus, vii. 37. t Pliny, xxxvi. 7. 



CAMPO VACCINO. 117 

It was near this that the Via Sacra was crossed by the 
Arch of Fab his, erected B.C. 121, in honour of the conqueror 
of the Allobroges, — the then inhabitants of Savoy. Close 
to this portion of the Via Sacra also stood a statue of 
Valeria, daughter of Publicola, by whom the honours of 
the virgin Cloelia were disputed. 

Besides those which we have noticed, there is mention 
in classical authors of many other buildings and statues 
which were once crowded into this narrow space ; but all 
trace of many even of those enumerated is still buried 
many feet below the soil. 

The modern name of Catnpo Vaccina, by which the Forum 
is now known, is supposed by some antiquaries to be derived 
from Vitruvius Vacco, who once had a house there. 

"La guerre aux habitants de Privernum (Piperno) rattache a une 
localite du Palatin. . . . Les habitants de Fondi avaient fait cause 
commune avec les habitants de Privernum. Leur chef, Vitruvius Vacca, 
possedait une maison sur le Palatin ; c'etait un homme considerable 
dans son pays et meme a Rome. lis demanderent et obtinrent grace. 
Privernum fut pris, et Vitruvius Vacca, qui s'y etait refugie, conduit k 
Rome, enferme dans le prison Mamertine pour y etre gard^ jusqu'au 
retour du consul, et alors battu de verges et mis a mort ; sa maison du 
Palatin fut rasee, et le lieu ou elle avait ete garda le nom de Fres de 
Vacca?'' — Ampere, Histoire Romaine, iii. 17. 

But the name will seem singularly appropriate to those 
who are familiar with the groups of meek -faced oxen of 
the Campagna, which are always to be seen lying in the 
shade under the trees of the Forum, or drinking at its 
water-troughs. 

" ' Romanoque Foro etlautis mugire Carinis.' 

" Ce vers m'a toujours profondement frappe, lorsque je traversais le 
Forum, aujourd'hui Campo-Vaccino (le champ du betail) ; je voyais en 
effet presque toujours a son extremite des boeufs couches au pied du 
Palatin. Virgile, se reportant de la Rome de son temps a la Rome 
ancienne d'Evandre, ne trouvait pas d'image plus frappante du change- 
ment produit par les siecles, que la presence d'un troupeau de boeufs dans 
le lieu destine a etre le Forum. Eh bien, le jour devait venir ou ce qui 
etait pour Virgile un passe lointain et presque incroyable se repro- 
duirait dans la suite des ages ; le Forum devait etre de nouveau un lieu 
agreste, ses magnificences s'en aller et les boeufs y revenir. 

"J'aimais \ les contempler a travers quelques colonnes moins vieilles 
que les souvenirs qu'ils nie retracaient, reprenant possession de ce sol 
d'ou les avait chasses la liberie, la gloire, Ciceron, Cesar, et ou devait 
les ramener la plus grande vicissitude de I'historie, la destruction de 
I'empire romain per les barbares. Ce que Virgile trouvait si etrange 
dans le passe n'etonne plus dans le present ; les boeufs mugissent au 



ii8 WALKS IN ROME. 

Forum ; ils s'y couchent et y ruminent aujourd'hui, de meme qu'au 
temps d'Evandre et comme s'il n'etait rien arrive." — Ampere, Hht. 
Rom. i. 211. 

" In many a heap the ground 
Heaves, is if Ruin in a frantic mood 
Had done his utmost. Here and there appears 
As left to show his handy- work not ours, 
An idle column, a half-buried arch, 
A wall of some great temple. It was once, 
And long, the centre of their Universe, 
The Forum — whence a mandate, eagle-winged. 
Went to the ends of the earth. Let us descend 
Slowly. At every step much may be lost. 
The very dust we tread stirs as with life, 
And not a breath but from the ground sends up 
Something of human grandeur. 

* * * * * 

Now all is changed ; and here, as in the wild, 
The day is silent, dreary as the night ; 
None stirring, save the herdsman and his herd, 
Savage alike ; or they that would explore, 
Discuss, and learnedly ; or they that come, 
(And there are many who have crossed the earth,) 
That they may give the hours to meditation, 
And wander, often saying to themselves, 
' This was the Roman Forum ! ' " 

Rogers' Italy. 

*' We descended into the Forum, the light fast fading away and throw- 
ing a kindred soberness over the scene of ruin. The soil has risen from 
rubbish at least fifteen feet, so that no wonder that the hills look lower 
than they used to do, having been never very considerable at the first. 
There it was one scene of desolation, from the massy foundation-stones 
of the Capitoline Temple, Avhich were laid by Tarquinius the Proud, to 
a single pillar erected in honour of Phocas, the eastern emperor, in the 
fifth century. What the fragments of pillars belonged to, perhaps we 
can never know- ; but that I think matters little. I care not whether it 
was a temple of Jupiter Stator or the Basilica Julia, but one knows that 
one is on the ground of the Forum, under the Capitol, the place where 
the tribes assembled, and the orators spoke ; the scene, in short, of all 
the internal struggles of the Roman people." — Aj'nold''s yournal. 

"They passed the solitary column of Phocas, and looked down into 
the excavated space, where a confusion of pillars, arches, pavements, 
and shattered blocks and shafts — the crumbs of various ruins dropt from 
the devouring maw of Time — stand, or lie, at the base of the Capitoline 
Hill. That renowned hillock (for it is little more) now rose abruptly 
above them. The ponderous masonry, with which the hillside is built 
up, is as old as Rome itself, and looks likely to endure while the world 
retains any substance or permanence. It once sustained the Capitol, and 
now bears up the great pile which the mediaeval builders raised on the 
antique foundation, and that still loftier tower, which looks abroad upon 
a larger page of deeper historic interest than any other scene can show. 



FOR UM R OMANUM. 1 1 9 

On the same pedestal of Roman masonry, other structures will doubt- 
less arise, and vanish like ephemeral things. 

'* To a spectator on the spot, it is remarkable that the events of 
Roman history, and of Roman life itself, appear not so distant as the 
Gothic ages which succeeded them. We stand in the Forum, or on the 
height of the Capitol, and seem to see the Roman epoch close at hand. 
We forget that a chasm extends between it and ourselves, in which lie 
all those dark, rude, unlettered centuries, around the birthtime of Christi- 
anity, as well as the age of chivalry and romance, the feudal system, and 
the infancy of a better civilization than that of Rome. Or, if we re- 
member these mediaeval times, they look further off than the Augustan 
age. The reason may be, that the old Roman literature survives, and 
creates for us an intimacy with the classic ages, which we have no means 
of forming with the subsequent ones. 

" The Italian climate, moreover, robs age of its reverence, and makes 
it look nearer than it is. Not the Coliseum, nor the tombs of the 
Appian Way, nor the oldest pillar in the Forum, nor any other Roman 
ruin, be it as dilapidated as it may, ever give the impression of venerable 
antiquity which we gather, along with the ivy, from the grey walls of an 
English abbey or castle. And yet every brick and stone, which we 
pick up among the former, had fallen, ages before the foundation of the 
latter was begun." — Haivthorne. 

**A Rome, vous marchez sur les pierres qui ont ete les dieux de 
Cesar et de Pompee : vous considerez la ruine de ces grands ouvrages, 
dont la vieillesse est encore belle, et vous vous promenerez tous les jours 
parmi les histoires et les fables. ... II n'y a que Rome oil la vie 
soit agreable, ou le corps trouve ses plaisirs et 1' esprit les siens, ou I'qn 
est a la source des belles choses. Rome est cause que vous n'etes plus 
barbares, elle vous a appris la civilite et la religion. ... II est 
certain que je ne monte jamais au Palatin ni au Capitole que je n'y 
change d' esprit, et qu'il ne me vienne d'autres pensees que les miennes 
ordinaires. Cet air m'inspire quelque chose de grand et de genereux 
que je n'avais point auparavant: si je reve deux heures au bord du 
Tibre, je suis aussi savant que si j'avais etudie huit jours." — Balzac. 



Before leaving the Forum we must turn from its classical 
to its mediaeval remains, and examine the very interesting 
group of churches which have sprung up amid its ruins. 

Almost opposite the Mamertine Prisons, surmounted by 
a handsome dome, is the Chu7'ch of Sta. Martina, which 
contains the -original model, bequeathed by the sculptor 
Thorvvaldsen, of his Copenhagen statue of Christ in the 
act of benediction. The subterranean church beneath this 
building is well worth visiting. An ante-chapel adorned 
with statues of four virgin martyrs leads to a beautiful 
chapel erected at the cost and from the designs of Pietro da 
Cortona. In its centre, lamps are always burning round the 
magnificent bronze altar which covers the shrine of Sta. 



:20 WALKS IN ROME. 

Martina, and beneath it, you can discover the martyr's tomb 
by the light of a torch which a monk lets down through a 
hole. A side chapel contains the grave in which the body 
of the saint was found in 1634. In the tribune is an 
ancient throne. 

"At the foot of the Capitoline hill, on the left hand as we descend 
from the Ara Coeli into the Forum, there stood in very ancient times a 
small chapel dedicated to Sta. Martina, a Roman virgin, who was 
martyred in the persecution under Alexander Severus. The veneration 
paid to her was of very early date, and the Roman people were accus- 
tomed to assemble there on the first day of the year. This observance 
was, however, confined to the people, and not very general till 1634; an 
era which connects her in rather an interesting manner with the history of 
art. In this yeai", as they were about to repair her chapel, they discovered, 
walled into the foundations, a sarcophagus of terra-cotta, in which was 
the body of a young female, whose severed head i-eposed in a separate 
casket. These remains were very naturally supposed to be those of the 
saint who had been so long venerated on that spot. The discovery was 
hailed with the utmost exultation, not by the people only, but by those 
who led the minds and consciences of the people. The pope himself, 
Urban VIII., composed hymns in her praise ; and Cardinal Francesco 
Barberini undertook to rebuild her church. Amongst those who shared 
the general enthusiasm was the i:>ainter, Pietro da Cortona, who was at 
Rome at the time, who very earnestly dedicated himself and his powers 
to the glorification of Sta. Martina. Her church had already been given 
to the Academy of Painters, and consecrated to St. Luke, their patron 
saint. It is now * San Luca and Santa Max'tina.' Pietro da Cortona 
erected at his own cost, the chapel of Sta. Martina, and when he died, 
endowed it with his whole fortune. He painted for the altarpiece his 
best picture, in which the saint is represented as triumphing over the 
idols, while the temple in which she has been led to sacrifice, is struck 
by lightning from heaven, and falls in ruins around her. In a votive 
picture of Sta. Martina kneeling at the feet of the Virgin and Child, she 
is represented as very young and lovely ; near her, a horrid instrument 
of torture, a two-pronged fork with barbed extremities, and the lictor's 
axe, signifying the manner of her death." — Jameson'' s Sacred and 
Legendary Art. 

The feast of the saint is observed here on Jan. 30, with 
much solemnity. Then in all the Roman churches is sung 
the H3'mn of Sta. Martina — 

" Martinse celebri plaudite nomini, 
JCives Romulei, plaudite glorioe ; 
Insignem mentis dicite virginem, 
Christi dicite martyrem. 

Hscc dum conspicuis orta parentibus 
Inter delicias, inter amabiles 
Luxus illecebras, ditibus affluit 
Faustx' muneribus domus. 



^TA. MARIA LIBERATRICE. 121 

Vitse despiciens commoda, dedicat 

Se rerum Domino, et munifica manu 

Christ! pauperibus distribuens opes 

Quaerit praemia ccelitum. 

A nobis abigas lubrica gaudia 

Tu, qui martyribus dexter ades, 

Deus 

Une et trine : tuis da famulis jubar, 

Quo Clemens animos beas. Amen." 

There is nothing especial to notice in S. Adriano, which 
is built in the ruins of the basilica of Emilius Paulus, or in 
S. Lorenzo in Miranda^ which occupies the temple of Anto- 
ninus and Faustina, but Sta. Maria Liberatrice, built on 
the site of the house of Numa and the convent of the 
Vestals, commemorates by its name a curious legend of the 
fourth century. On this site, it is said, dwelt in a cave, a 
terrible dragon who had slain three hundred persons with 
the poison of his breath. Into this cave, instructed thereto 
by St. Peter, and entrusting himself to the care of the 
Virgin, descended St. Silvester the Pope, attended by two 
acolytes bearing torches, and here, having pronounced the 
name of Christ, he was miraculously enabled to bind the 
dragon, and to shut him up till the day of Judgment. But 
when he ascended in safety, he found at the mouth of the 
cave two magicians who had followed him in the hope of 
discovering some imposture, dying from the poison of the 
dragon's breath, — and these also he saved alive. 

We now reach the circular building which has been so 
long known as the temple of Remus. To the right of the 
entrance are two pillars of cipolino, almost buried in the 
soil. The porphyry pillars at the entrance, supporting a 
richly sculptured cornice, were probably set up in their 
present position when the temple was turned into a church. 
The bronze doors were brought from Perugia. If, as is now 
supposed, the temple on this site was that of the Penates, 
the protectors against all kinds of illness and misfortune, 
the modern dedication to the protecting physicians Cosmo 
and Damian may have had some reference to that which 
went before. 

The Church of SS. Cosmo a?id Damiano was founded 
within the ancient temple by Pope Felix IV. in 527, and 
restored by Adrian I. in 780. In 1633 the whole building 
was modernized by Urban VI 1 1., who, in order to raise it to 



122 WALKS IN ROME. 

the present level of the soil, cut the ancient church in 
half by the vaulting which now divides the upper and lower 
churches. To visit the lower church a monk must be 
summoned, who will bring a torch. This is well worth 
while. It is of great size, and contains a curious well 
into which Christian martyrs in the time of Nero are said 
to have been precipitated. The tomb of the martyrs 
Cosmo and Damian is beneath the altar, which is formed 
of beautiful transparent marble. Under a side altar is 
the grave of Felix IV. The third and lowest church (the 
orighial crypt) which is very small, is said to have been a 
place of refuge during the early Christian persecutions. 
Here is shown the altar at Avhich Felix IV. celebrated mass 
while his converts were hiding here — the grave in which the 
body of the pope was afterwards discovered — and a miracu- 
lous spring, still flowing, which is said to have burst forth 
in answer to his prayers that he might have wherewithal to 
baptize his disciples. A passage which formerly led from 
hence to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian, was walled up, 
twenty years ago, by the paternal government, because 
twenty persons were lost in it. In this crypt were found 
the famous " Pianta Capitohna," now preserved in the 
Capitol. In the upper church, on the right of the entrance 
from the circular vestibule into the body of the building is 
this inscription — 

" L'imagine di Madonna Santissima die esiste all' altar magg. parlo 
a S. Gregorio Papa dicendogli, ' Perche piu non mi saluti mentre pas- 
sando eri solito salutarmi ? ' II santo domando perdona e concesse a 
quelli che celebrano in quell' altare la liberazione dell' anima dal pur- 
gatorio, cioe per quell' anima per la quale si celebra la messa."* 

Another inscription narrates — 

"Gregorius primus concessit omnibus et singulis visitantibus eccle- 
siam istam sanctorum Cosmae et Damiani mille annos de indulgentia, et 
in die stationis ejusdem ecclesiae idem Gregorius concessit decem millia 
annorum de indulgentia." 

Among the many relics preserved in this church are, 
"Una ampulla lactis Beatse Mariae Virginis " ; " De Domo 
Sanctce Mariae Magdalence"; " De Domo Sancti Zachariae 
profeta ! " 

Deserving of the most minute attention is the grand 
xnosaic of Christ — coming on the clouds of sunset. 

♦ See Percy's Romanism. 



CHURCH OF SS. COSMO AND D AMI AN. 1^3 

*'The mosaics of SS. Cosmo and Damian (a.d. 526 — 530) arc the 
finest of ancient Christian Rome. Above the arch appear, on each side 
of the Lamb, four angels, of excellent but somewhat severe style ; then 
follow various apocalyptic emblems : a modern walling up having left 
but few traces of the twenty-four elders. A gold surface, dimmed by 
age, with little purple clouds, forms the background : though in Rome, 
at least, at both an earlier and later date, a blue ground prevailed. 
In the apsis itself, upon a dark blue ground, with golden -edged clouds, 
is seen the colossal figure of Christ ; the right hand raised, either in 
benediction or teaching, the left holding a written scroll ; above is the 
hand, which is the emblem of the First Person of the Trinity. Below, 
on each side, the apostles Peter and Paul are leading SS. Cosmo and 
Damiano, each with crowns on their heads, towards the Saviour, fol- 
lowed by St. Theodore on the right, and by Pope Felix IV., the founder 
of the church, on the left. This latter, unfortunately, is an entirely 
restored figure. Two palm-trees, sparkling with gold, above one of 
which appears the emblem of eternity, the phoenix — with a star-shaped 
nimbus, close the composition on each side. Further below, indicated 
by water-plants, sparkling also with gold, is the river Jordan. The 
figure of Christ may be regarded as one of the most marvellous speci- 
mens of the art of the middle ages. Countenance, attitude, and drapery 
combine to give him expression of quiet majesty, which, for many cen- 
turies after, is not found again in equal beauty and freedom. The 
drapery, especially, is disposed in noble folds, and only in its somewhat 
too ornate details is a further departure from the antique observable. 
The saints are not as yet arranged in stjff parallel forms, but are ad- 
vancing forward, so that their figures appear somewhat distorted, while 
we already remark something constrained and inanimate in their step. 
The apostles Peter and Paul wear the usual ideal costume. SS. 
Cosmo and Damiano are attired in the late Roman dress : violet 
mantles, in gold stuff, with red embroideries of oriental barbaric effect. 
Otherwise the chief motives of the drapery are of great beauty, though 
somewhat too abundant in folds. The high lights are brought out by 
gold and other sparkling materials, producing a gorgeous play of colour 
which relieves the figures vigorously from the dark blue background. 
Altogether, a feeling for colour is here displayed, of which no later 
mosaics with gold grounds give any idea. The heads, with the excep- 
tion of the principal figure, are animated and individual,* though without 
any particular depth of expression ; somewhat elderly, also, in physio- 
gnomy, but still far removed from any Byzantine stiffness ; St. Peter has 
already the bald head, and St. Paul the short brown hair and dark 
beard, by which they were afterwards recognizable. Under this chief 
composition, on a gold ground, is seen the Lamb upon a hill, with 
the four rivers of Paradise, and the twelve sheep on either hand. The 
great care of execution is seen in the five or six gradations of tints which 
the artist has adopted." — Kiigler. 

SS. Cosmo and Damian, to whom this church is dedi- 
cated, were two Arabian physicians who exercised their 
art from charity. They suffered under Diocletian. " First 
they were thrown into the sea, but an angel saved them ; 
and then into the fire, but the fire refused to burn them ; 



124 WALKS IN ROME. 

then they were bound to crosses and stoned, but the stones 
either fell harmless or rebounded on their executioners and 
killed them, so then the pro-consul Lycias, believing them 
to be sorcerers, commanded that they should be beheaded, 
and thus they died," SS. Cosmo and Damian were the patron 
saints of the Medici, and their gilt statues were carried in 
state at the coronation of Leo X. (Giovanni de' Medici). 
Their fame is generai in many parts of France, where their 
fete is celebrated by a village fair — children who ask for their 
fairing of a toy or gingerbread calling it their " St. Come." 

"It is related that a certain man, who was afflicted with a cancer in 
his leg, went to perform his devotions in the Church SS. Cosmo and 
Damian at Rome, and he prayed most earnestly that these beneficent 
saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had prayed, a deep sleep 
fell upon him. Then he beheld St. Cosmo and St. Damian, who 
stood beside him ; and one carried a box of ointments, and the other 
a sharp knife. And one said, * What shall we do to replace this 
diseased leg when we have cut it off ? ' And the other replied, * There 
is a Moor who has been buried just now at St. Pietro in Vincoli ; let 
us take his leg for the purpo.-ie.' So they brought the leg of the dead 
man, and with it they replaced the leg of the sick man ; anointing it 
with celestial ointment, so that he remained whole. When he awoke 
he almost doubted whether it could be himself; but his neighbours, 
seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb of the Moor, and found 
that there had been an exchange of legs : and thus the truth of this 
great miracle was proved to all beholders." — Mrs. Jameson, from 
the I.egenda Aurea. 

Just beyond the basilica of Constantine, stands the 
Church of Sta. Francesca Romana^ which is full of interest. 
It was first built by St. Sylvester on the site of the 
temple of Venus and dedicated to the Virgin, under the 
tide of Sta. Maria Antica. It was rebuilt in a.d. 872 by 
John VIII., who resided in the adjoining monastery during 
his pontificate. An ancient picture attributed to St. Luke, 
brought from Troy in iioo, was the only object in this 
church which was preserved when the building was totally 
destroyed by fire in 12 16, after which the church, then 
called Sta. Maria Nuova, was restored by Honorius III. 
During the restoration, the picture was kept at S. Adriano, 
and its being brought back led to a contest amongst the 
people, which was ended by a child exclaiming — " What are 
you doing? the Madonna is already in her own church." 
She had betaken herself thither none knew how. 

In the twelfth century the church was given to the 



CHURCH OF STA. FRANCESCA ROMANA, 125 

Lateran Canons, in the fourteenth to the OHvetan monks; 
under Eugenius IV., the latter extended their boundaries so 
far that they included the Coliseum, but their walls were 
forced down in the succeeding pontificate. Gregory XL, 
Paul II., and Caesar Borgia, were cardinals of Sta. Maria 
Novella. In 1440 the name was changed to that of Sta. 
Francesca Romana, when that saint, Francesca de' Pon- 
ziani, foundress of the Order of Oblates, was buried here. 
Her tomb was erected in 1640 by Donna Agata Pamfili, 
sister of Innocent X., herself an Oblate. It is frojii the 
designs of Bernini, and is rich in marbles. The figure 
was not added till 1868. 

" After the death of Francesca, her body remained during a night 
and a day at the Ponziani Palace, the Oblates watching by turns over 
the beloved remains. . . . Francesca's face, which had recently 
borne traces of age and suffering, became as beautiful again as in the 
days of youth and prosperity ; and the astonished bystanders gazed with 
wonder and awe at her unearthly loveliness. Many of them carried 
away particles from her clothes, and employed them for the cure of 
several persons who had been considered beyond the possibility of 
recovery. In the course of the day the crowd augmented to a degree 
which alarmed the inhabitants of the palace, Battista Ponziani took 
measures to have the body removed at once to the church, and a pro- 
cession of the regular and secular clergy escorted the venerated remains 
to Santa Maria Nuova, where they were to be interred. 

"The popular feeling burst forth on the occasion ; it was no longer 
to be restrained. Francesca was invoked by the crowd, and her 
beloved name was heard in every street, in every piazza, in every corner 
of the Eternal City. It flew from mouth to mouth, it seemed to float in 
the air, to be borne aloft by the grateful enthusiasm of a whole people, 
who had seen her walk to that church by her mother's side in her holy 
childhood ; who had seen her kneel at that altar in the grave beauty of 
womanhood, in the hour of bereavement, and now in death, carried 
thither in state, she the gentle, the humble saint of Rome, the poor 
woman of the Trastevere, as she was sometimes called at her own 
desire." — Lady G. FullertoiH s Life of Sta. Francesca Roitiana. 

A chapel on the right of the church contains the 
monument of Cardinal Vulcani, 1322, supporting his 
figure, with P'aith, Hope, and Charity sculptured in high 
relief below. Near the door is that of Cardinal Adimari, 
1432, who died here after an ineffectual mission to the 
anti-pope Pedro da' Luna. In the left transept was a 
fine Perugino (removed 1867); in the right transept is the 
tomb of Pope Gregory XL, by Pietro Paolo Olivieri, erected 
by the senate in gratitude for his having restored the papal 
court to Rome from Avignon. A bas-reUef represents his 



126 WALKS IN ROME, 

triumphal entry with St. Catherine of Siena, by whose en- 
treaties he was induced to return, walking before his mule. 
A breach in the walls indicates the minous state into which 
Rome had fallen ; the chair of St. Peter is represented as 
floating back through the ah, while an angel carries the 
papal tiara and keys ; a metaphorical figure of Rome is 
coming forth to welcome the pope. 

"The greatest part of the praise due to Gregory's return to Rome 
belongs to St. Catherine of Siena, who, Avith infinite courage, travelled 
to Avignon, and persuaded the pope to return, and by his presence to 
dispel the evils which disgraced Italy, in consequence of the absence of 
the popes. Thus it is not to be wondered at, that those writers, M-ho 
rightly understand the matter, should have said that Catherine, the 
virgin of Siena, brought back to God the abandoned apostolical chair 
upon her shoulders." — Ughelli, Ital. Sacra, vi. col. 45. 

Near Pope Gregory's tomb some blackened marks in the 
wall are shown as holes made by the (gigantic) knees of St. 
Peter, when he knelt to pray that Simon Magus might be 
dropped by the demons he had invoked to support him in 
the air, which he is said to have done to show his power 
on the spot. 

"When the error of Simon was spreading farther and farther, the 
illustrious pair of men, Peter and Paul, the rulers of the Church, 
arrested it by going thither, Mho suddenly exhibited as dead, Simon, the 
putative God, on his appearance. For when Simon declared that he 
would ascend aloft into heaven, the servants of God cast him headlong 
to the earth, and though this occurrence was wonderful in itself, it was 
not wonderful under the circumstances, for it was Peter who did it, he 
who bears with him the keys of heaven. ... it was Paul who did it, he 
who was caught up into the third heaven." — St. Cyril of Jerusalem. 

"Simon promised to fly, and thus ascend to the heavenly abodes. 
On the day agreed upon, he went to the Capitoline hill, and throwing 
himself from the rock, began his ascent. Then Peter, standing in the 
midst, said, 'O Lord Jesus, show him that his arts are in vain.' 
Hardly had the words been uttered, when the wings which Simon had 
made use of became entangled, and he fell. His thigh was fractured, 
never to be healed, — and some time afterwards, the unhappy man died 
at Aretia, whither he had retired after his discomfiture." — St. Ambrose.* 

"There can be no doubt that there existed in the first century a 
Simon, a Samaritan, a pretender to divine authority and supernatural 
powers ; who, for a time, had many followers ; who stood in a certain 
relation to Christianity; and who may have held some opinions more or 
less similar to those entertained by the most famous heretics of the early 
ages, the Gnostics. Irenoeus calls this Simon the father of all heretics. 
•All those,' he says, 'who in any way corrupt the truth, or mar the 

* See the whole question of Simon Magus discussed in Waterworth's " England and 
Rome." 



TEMPLE OF VENUS AND ROME. 127 

preaching of the Church, are disciples and successors of Simon, the 
Samaritan magician.' Simon gave himseh" forth as a God, and carried 
about with him a beautiful woman named Helena, whom he represented 
as the first conception of his — that is, of the divine — m.ind, the symbol 
and manifestation of that portion of spirituality M'hich had become 
entangled in matter." — Jameson'' s Sacred A7'i, p.. 204. 

The vault of the tribune is covered with mosaics. 

"The restored tribune mosaic^ (apd, 858-887, during the ponti- 
ficate of Nicholas I.), close the list of Roman Byzantine works. By 
their time it had become apparent that such figures as the art of the 
day was alone able to achieve, could have no possible relation to each 
other, and therefore no longer constitute a composition ; the artists 
accordingly separated the Madonna on the throne, and the four saints 
with uplifted hands, by graceful arcades. The ground is gold, the 
nimbuses blue. The faces consist only of feeble lines— the cheeks are 
only red blotches; the folds merely dark strokes; nevertheless a certain 
flow and fulness in the forms, and the character of a few accessories 
(for instance, the exchange of a crown upon the Virgin's head for the 
invariable Byzantine veil), seem to indicate that we have not so much to 
do here with the decline of Byzantine art, as with a northern and 
probably Frankish influence." — Kiiglcr. 

The convent attached to this church was the abode of 
Tasso during his first visit to Rome. 

Behind Sta. Francesca Romana, and facing the Cohseum, 
are the remains generally known as the Temple of Venus and 
Rome, also called Templum Urbis (now sometimes called 
by objectors the " Portico of Livia "), which, if this name is 
the correct one, was originally planned by the Emperor 
Hadrian to rival the Forum of Trajan, erected by the archi- 
tect Apollodorus. It was built upon a site previously occu- 
pied by the atrium of Nero's Golden House. Little rem.ains 
standing except a cella facing the Cohseum, and another 
in the cloisters of the adjoming convent (these, perhaps, 
being restorations by Maxentius, c. 307, after a fire had 
destroyed most of the building of Hadrian), but the sur- 
rounding grassy height is positively littered with fragments 
of the grey granite columns which once formed the grand 
portico (400 by 200 feet) of the building. A large mass of 
Corinthian cornice remains near the cella facing the Colis- 
eum. This was the last pagan temple which remained in 
use in Rome."" It was only closed by Theodosius in 391, 
and remained entire till 625, when. Pope Honorius carried 
off the bronze tiles of its roof to St. Peter's. 

* Prudentius contra Symmac. i. i, 25. 



128 WALKS IN ROME. 

*' Ac sacram resonare viam miigitibus, ante 

DelubiTim Romae ; colitur nam sanguine et ipsa 

More deee, nomenque loci, ceu numen, habetur, 

^ Atque Urbis, Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt 

Templa, simul geminis adolentur thura deabus." 

Pnidenthis contr. Syvim. v. 214. 

"When about to construct his magnificent temple of Venus and 
Rome, Hadrian produced a design of his own and showed it with proud 
satisfaction to the architect Apollodorus. The creator of the Trajan 
column remarked with a sneer that the deities, if they rose from their 
seats, must thrust their heads through the ceiling. The emperor, we 
are assured, could not forgive this banter ; but we can hardly take to the 
letter the statement that he put his critic to death for it." — Menvale, 
ch. Ixvi. 

In front of this temple stood the bronze statue of CloeHa, 
mentioned by Livy and Seneca, and (till the sixth century) 
the bronze elephants mentioned by Cassiodorus. Nearer 
the Coliseum may still be seen the remains of the founda- 
tion prepared by Hadrian for the Colossal Statue of Nei'o, 
executed in bronze by Zenodorus. This statue was twice 
moved, first by Vespasian, in a.d. 75, that it might face 
the chief entrance of his amphitheatre,* whose plan had 
been already laid out. At the same time — though it was a 
striking likeness of Nero — its head was surrounded with rays 
that it might represent Apollo. In its second position it 
is described by Martial : 

" Hie ubi sidereus propius videt astra colossus 
Et crescunt media pegmata celsa via, 
Invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis, 

Unaque jam tota stabat in urbe domus." 

De Sped. ii. 

It was again moved (with the aid of forty -two elephants), 
a few yards further north, by Hadrian, when he built his 
temple of Venus and Rome. Pliny describes the colossus 
as Tio, Dion Cassius as 100 feet high. 

"Hadrian employed an architect named Decrianvis to remove the 
colossus of Nero, the face of which had been altered into a Sol. 
He does not seem to have accomplished the design of Apollodorus 
to erect a companion statue of Luna." — Alerivale, ch. Ixvi. 

Near the Church of Sta. Francesca the Via Sacra passes 
under the A?'ch of Titus, which, even in its restored con- 
dition, is the most beautiful monument of the kind remain- 
ing in Rome. Its Christian interest is unrivalled, from its 

* Dion Cassius, Ixvi. 15. 



ARCH OF TITUS. 129 

having been erected by the senate to commemorate the 
taking of Jerusalem, and from its bas-reHefs of the seven- 
branched candlestick and other treasures of the Jewish 
Temple. In mediaeval times it was called the Arch of the 
Seven Candlesticks (septem lucernarum) from the bas- 
relief of the candlestick, concerning which Gregorovius 
remarks, that the fantastic figures carved upon it prove that 
it was not an exact likeness of that which came from Jeru- 
salem. The bas-reliefs are now greatly mutilated, but they 
are shown in their perfect state in a drawing of Giuliano di 
Sangallo. On the frieze is the sacred river Jordan, as an 
aged man, borne on a bier. The arch, which was in a very 
ruinous condition, had been engrafted in the middle ages into 
a fortress tower called Turris Cartularia, and so it remained 
till the present century. This tower originally formed the 
entrance to the vast fortress of the powerful Frangipani 
family, which included the Coliseum and a great part of the 
Palatine and Coelian hills ; and here, above the gate, Pope 
Urban II. dwelt in 1093, under the protection of Giovanni 
Frangipani. The arch was repaired by Pius VII., who 
replaced in travertine the lost marble portions at the top 
and sides. 

" Standing beneath the arch of Titus, and amid so much ancient dust, 
it is difficult to forbear the commonplaces of enthusiasm, on which hun- 
dreds of tourists have already insisted. Over the half- worn pavement, 
and beneath this arch, the Roman armies had trodden in their outward 
march, to fight battles, a world's width away. Returning victorious, 
with royal captives, and inestimable spoil, a Roman triumph, that most 
gorgeous pageant of earthly pride, has streamed and flaunted in hundred- 
fold succession over these same flagstones, and through this yet stalwart 
archway. It is politic, however, to make few allusions to such a past ; 
nor is it wise to suggest how Cicero's feet may have stepped on yonder 
stone, or how Horace was wont to stroll near by, making his footsteps 
chime with the measure of the ode that was ringing in his mind. The 
very ghosts of that massive and stately epoch have so much density that 
the people of to-day seem the thinner of the two, and stand more ghost- 
like by the arches and columns, letting the rich sculpture be discerned 
through their ill-compacted substance." — Hazvthorne . 

" We passed on to the arch of Titus. Amongst the reliefs there is 
the figure of a man bearing the golden candlestick from the Temple at 
Jerusalem, as one of the spoils of the triumph. Yet He who abandoned 
His visible and local temple to the hands of the heathen for the sin of 
His nominal worshippers, has taken to Him His great power, and has 
gotten Him glory by destroying the idols of Rome as He had done the 
idols of Babylon ; and the golden candlestick burns and shall burn 
with an everlasting light, while the enemies of His holy name, Babylon, 



130 WALKS IN ROME, 

Rome, or the carcasj: of sin in every land, which the eagles of His wrath 
will surely find out, perish for ever from before Him." — Arnold's 
Joicrnal. 

" The Jewish trophies are sculptured in bas-relief on the inside of the 
arch beneath the vaulting. Opposite to these is another bas-relief repre- 
senting Titus in the quadriga, the reins borne by the goddess Roma. In 
the centre of the arch, Titus is borne to heaven by an eagle. It may be 
conjectured that these ornaments to his glory were designed after the 
death of Vespasian, and completed after his own. . . . These 
witnesses to the truth of history are scanned at this day by Christians 
passing to and fro between the Coliseum and the Forum ; and at this 
day the Jew refuses to walk beneath them, and creeps stealthily by the 
side, with downcast eyes, or countenance averted." — Merivale, Romans 
tinder the Empire, vii. 250. 

"The restoration of the arch of Titus reflects the greatest credit on 
the commission appointed by Pius VII. for the restoration of ancient 
edifices. This, not only beautiful, but precious monument, had been 
made the nucleus of a hideous castellated fort by the Frangipani family. 
Its masonry, however, embraced and held together, as Avell as crushed, 
the marble arch ; so that on freeing it from its rude buttresses there was 
fear of its collapsing, and it had first to be well bound together by props 
and bracing beams, a process in which the Roman architects are un- 
rivalled. The simple expedient was then adopted by the architect 
Stern of completing the arch in stone ; for its sides had been removed. 
Thus increased in solid structure, which continued all the architectural 
lines, and renewed its proportions to the mutilated centre, the arch was 
both completely secured and almost restored to its pristine elegance." — 
Wiseman^ s lAfe of Pius VII. 

The processions of the popes going to the Lateran for 
their solemn installation, used to halt beside the arch of 
Titus while a Jew presented a copy of the Pentateuch, with 
a humble oath of fealty. This humiliating ceremony was 
omitted for the first time at the installation of Pius IX. 



At this point it may not be inappropriate to notice two 
other buildings, which, though situated on the Palatine, are 
totally disconnected with the other objects occupying that: 
hill. 

A lane runs up to the right from the arch of Titus. On ' 
the left is a gateway, surmounted by a faded fresco of 
St. Sebastian. Here is the entrance to a wild and beau- 
tiful garden, possessing most lovely views of the various 
ruins, occupying the site of the gardens of Adonis. This 
garden is the place where St. Sebastian underwent his (so- 
called) martyrdom, and will call to mind the many fine 
pictures, scattered over Europe, of the youthful and 



STA. MARIA PALLARA. . 131 

beautiful saint, bound to a tree, and pierced with arrows. 
The finest of these are the Domenichino, in Sta. Maria degli 
Angeh, and the Sodoma at Florence. He is sometime 
represented as bound to an orange tree, and sometimes, 
as in the Guido at Bologna, to a cypress, like those we still 
see on this spot. Here was an important Benedictine 
Convent, where Pope Boniface IV. was a monk before his 
election to the papacy, and where the famous abbots of 
Monte Casino had their Roman residence. Here, in 11 18, 
fifty-one cardinals took refuge, and elected Gelasius II. 
as Pope. The only building remaining is the Church of 
Sta. Maria Pallara or S. Sebastiano^ containing some 
curious inscriptions relating to events which have occurred 
here, and — in the tribune, frescoes, of the Saviour in 
benediction with four saints, and below, two other groups 
representing the Virgin with saints and angels, placed, as 
we learn by the inscription beneath, by one Benedict — 
probably an abbot. 

Further up the lane a " Via Crucis " leads to the Chip'ch 
of S. Biionaveiitura, " the seraphic doctor " (Cardinal and 
Bishop of Albano, ob. July 14, 1274), who in childhood was 
raised from the point of death ( 1 2 2 1 ) by the prayers of St. 
Francis, who was so surprised when he came to life, that he 
involuntarily exclaimed, '' O buona ventura " — ( " what a 
happy chance ") — whence the name by which he was after- 
wards known.'* 

The little church contains several good modern monu- 
ments. Beneath the altar is shown the body of the Blessed 
Leonardo of Porto-Maurizio (ob. 175 1), who arranged the 
Via Crucis in the Coliseum, and who is much revered by 
the ultra-Romanists for having prophesied the proclamation 
of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The crucifix 
and the picture of the Madonna which he carried with him 
in his missions, are preserved in niches on either side of the 
tribune, and many other relics of him are shown in his cell 
in the adjoining convent of Minor Franciscans. Entered 
through the convent is a lovely little garden, whence there is 
a grand view of the Coliseum, and where a little fountain is 
shaded by two tall palm trees. 

*' Oswald went next to the monastery of S. Buenaventura, built on 

• S. Buonaventura is perhaps best known to the existing Christian world as the 
author of the beautiful hymn, " Recordare sanctse crucis." 



1Z2 WALKS IN ROME, 

the ruins of Nero's palace. There, where so many crimes had reigned 
remorselessly, poor friars, tormented by conscientious scruples, doom 

«iemselves to fasts and stripes for the least omission of duty. ' Our 
hly hope,' said one, ' is that when we die, our faults will not have ex- 
ceeded our penances.' Nevill, as he entered, stumbled over a trap, and 
asked its purpose. ' It is through that we are interred,' answered one 
of the youngest, already a prey to the bad air. The natives of the 
south fear death so much that it is wondrous to find there these per- 
petual mementoes ; yet nature is often fascinated by what she dreads, 
and such an intoxication fills the soul exclusively. The antique sarco- 
phagus of a child serves as the fountain of this institution. The boasted 
palm of Rome is the only tree of its ^x^&x\..^'' -^Madame de Staely 
Co7-inne. 

The arch of Titus is spoken of as being " in summa Via 
Sacra" as the street was called which led from the southern 
gate of Rome to the Capitol, and by which the victorious 
generals passed in their triumphant processions to the 
temple of Jupiter. Between the arch of Titus and the Coli- 
seum, the ancient pavement of this famous road, composed 
of huge polygonal blocks of lava, has been allowed to 
remain. Here we may imagine Horace taking his favourite 
walk. 

*' Ibam forte Via Sacra, sicut meus est mos, 
Nescio quid meditans nuganim, et totus in illis." 

Sat. i. 9. 

It appears to have been the favourite resort of the flaneur^ 

of the day : 

*' Videsne, vSacram metiente te vian^ 
Cum bis ter ulnarum toga, 
Ut ora vertat hue et hue euntium 
Liberrima indignatio ? " 

Horace, Epod. 4. 

The Via Sacra was originally bordered with shops. Ovid 
alludes frequently to the purchases which might be made 
there in his time. In this especial part of the Via was the 
market for fruit and honey.* 

** Dum bene dives ager, dum rami pondere nutant ; 
Adferat in calatho rustica dona puer. 
Rure suburbano poteris tibi dicere missa ; 
Ilia vel in Sacra sint licet empta Via." 

Ovid, Art, Aman. ii. 263. 

At the foot of the hill are the remains of the bason and 
the brick cone of a fountain called Meta Sudans, where the 

♦ Varro, de R. Rust. i. 2, and iii. x6. 



ARCH OF CONSTANTINE. 133 

gladiators used to wash. Seneca, who hved in this neigh- 
bourhood, complains (Epist Ivi.) of the noise which was 
made by a showman who blew his trumpet close to th^" 
fountain. 

On the right the Via Triumphalis leads to the Via Appia, 
passing under the Arch of Constanti7ie. The lower bas- 
reUefs upon this arch, which are crude and ill-designed, 
refer to the deeds of Constantine ; but the upper, of fine 
workmanship, illustrate the life of Trajan, which has led 
some to imagine that the arch was originally erected in 
honour of Trajan, and afterwards appropriated by Constan- 
tine. They were, however, removed from an arch of Trajan 
(whose ruins existed in 1430*), and were appropriated by 
Constantine for his own arch. 

*' Constantin a enleve a un arc de triomphe de Trajan les statues de 
prisonniers daces que Ton voit au sommet du sien. Ce vol a ete puni au 
seizieme siecle, car, dans ce qui semble un acces de folic, Lorenzino, le 
bizarre assassin d' Alexandre de Medicis a decapite toutes les statues qui 
surmontaient I'arche Constantin, moins une, la seule dont la tete soit 
antique. Heureusement on a dans les musees, a Rome et ailleurs, hon 
nombre de ces statues de captifs barbarcs avec le meme costume, c'est- 
a dire le pantalon et le bonnet, souvent les mains liees, dans une attitude 
de soumission morne, quelque fois avec une expression de sombre fierte, 
car I'art romain avait la noblesse de ne pas humilier les vaincus ; il ne 
les representait point a genoux, foules aux pieds pai leurs vainqueurs ; 
on ne donnait pas a leurs traits etranges un aspect qu'on cut pu rendre 
hideux ; on les pla^ait sur le sommet des arcs de triomphe, debout, la 
tete baissee, Pair triste.'" 

" ' Summus tristis captivus in arcu.'" 

Ampere, Emp. ii. 169. 

The arch was further plundered by Clement VIII., who 
carried off one of its eight Corinthian columns to finish a 
chapel at the Lateran. They were formerly all of giallo- 
antico. But it is still the most striking and beautiful of the 
Roman arches. 

" L'inscription gravee sur Tare de Constantin est curieuse par le 
vague de rexpression en ce qui touche aux idees religieuses, par I'inde- 
cision calculee des termes dont se servait un senat qui voulait eviter de 
se compromettre dans un sens comme dans I'autre. L'inscription porte 
que cet arc a ete dedie a I'empereur parcequ'il a delivre la republique 
d'un tyran (on dit encore la republique !) par la grandeur de son ame et 
une inspiration de la Divinile, insthidu Divinitaiis. II parait meme que 
ces mots ont ete ajoutes apres coup pour remplacer une formule 

• See Poggio, De Vanitate Fortunse. 



134 WALKS IN HOME. 

peut-etre plus explicitement paienne. Ce monument, qui celebre le 
triomphe de Constantin, ne proclame done pas encore nettement le 
Jjiomphe du Chi-istianisme. Comment s'en etonner, quand sur les 
monnaies de cet empereur on voit d'un cote le monogramme du Christ 
et I'autre I'effigie de Rome, qui etait une divinite pour les paiens ? " — 
>e7r, Ei7ip. ii. 355. 



We nov/ turn to the Coliseum^ originally called The Flavian 
Amphitheatre. This vast building was begun in a.d. 72, 
upon the site of the reservoir of Nero, by the Emperor Ves- 
pasian, who built as far as the third row of arches, the last 
two rows being finished by Titus after his return from the 
conquest of Jerusalem. It is said that 12,000 captive Jews 
were employed in this work, as the Hebrews in building the 
Pyramids of Egypt, and that the external walls alone cost a 
sum equal to 17,000,000 francs. It consists of four stories, 
the first Doric, the second Ionic, the third and fourth 
Corinthian. Its circumference is 1641 feet, its length is 287, 
its width 182, its height 157. The entrance for the emperor 
was between two arches facing the Esquiline, where there 
is no cornice. Here there are remains of stucco decoration. 
On the opposite side was a similar entrance from the 
Palatine. Towards S. Gregorio has been discovered the 
subterranean passage in which the Emperor Commodus 
was near being assassinated. The numerous holes visible 
all over the exterior of the building were made in the middle 
ages, to extract the iron cramps, at that time of great value. 
The arena was surrounded by a wall sufficiently high to pro- 
tect the spectators from the wild beasts, who were introduced 
by subterranean passages closed by huge gates, from the side 
towards the Coelian. The podiwn contained the places of 
honour reserved for the Emperor and his family, the Senate, 
and the Vestal virgins. The places for the other spectators 
who entered by openings called vomitoria^ were arranged in 
three stages {cavece), separated by a gallery {prceciiictio). The 
first stage for knights and tribunes, had 24 steps, the second 
(for the common people) 16, the third (for the soldiery) 10. 
The women, by order of the emperor, sate apart from the 
men, and married and unmarried men were also divided. 
The whole building was probably capable of containing 
100,000 persons. At the top, on the exterior, may be seen 
the remains of the consoles which sustained the velarhwi 
which was drawn over the arena to shelter the spectators 



COLISEUM. 135 

from the sun or rain. The arena could on occasions be 
filled with water for the sake of naval combats. 

Nothing is known with certainty as to the architect of the 
Coliseum, though a tradition of the Church (founded on an 
inscription in the crypt of S. Martino al Monte), ascribes it 
to Gaudentius, a Christian martyr, who afterwards suffered 
on the spot* 

" The name of the architect to whom the great work of the Coli- 
seum was entrusted has not come down to us. The ancients seem them- 
selves to have regarded this name as a matter of little interest ; nor, in 
fact, do they generally care to specify the authorship of their most illus- 
trious buildings. The reason is obvious. The forms of ancient art in 
this department were almost wholly conventional, and the limits of 
design within which they were executed gave little room for the display 

of original taste and special character It is only in periods 

of eclecticism and renaissance, -when the taste of the architect has wider 
scope, and may lead the eye instead of following it, that interest attaches 
to his personal merit. Thus it is that the Coliseum, the most con- 
spicuous type of Roman civilisation, the monument which divides the 
admiration of strangers in modern Rome with St. Peter's itself, is 
nameless and parentless, while every stage in the construction of the 
great Christian temple, the creation of a modern revival, is appropriated 
wdlh jealous care to its special claimants. 

" The dedication of the Coliseum afforded to Titus an opportunity 
for a display of magnificence hitherto unrivalled. A battle of cranes 
with dwarfs representing the pigmies was a fanciful novelty, and might 
afford diversion for a moment ; there were combats of gladiators, among 
whom women were included, though no noble matron was allowed to 
mingle in the fray ; and the capacity of the vast edifice was tested by 
the slaughter of five thousand animals in its circuit. The show was 
crowned with the immission of water into the arena, and with a sea-fight 
representing the contests of the Corinthians and Corcyreans, related 
by Thucydides. . . . When all was over, Titus himself was seen 
to weep, perhaps from fatigue, possibly from vexation and disgust; but 
his tears were interpreted as a presentiment of his death, which was now 
impending, and jt is probable that he was already suffering from a de- 
cline of bodily strength. . . . He lamented effeminately the prema- 
ture decease he too surely anticipated, and, looking wistfully at the 
heavens, exclaimed that he did not deserve to die. He expired on the 
13th September, 81, not having quite completed his fortieth year." — 
Merivale, ch. Ix. 

" Hadrian gave a series of entertainments in honour of his birth-day, 
with the slaughter of a thousand beasts, including a hundred lions and 
as many lionesses. One magical scene was the representation of forests, 

* This inscription, found in the catacomb of S. Agnese, runs : 
" Sic praimia servas Vespasiane dire 
Premiatus es mortc Gaudenti letare 
Civitatis ubi glorise tuai autori, 
Promisit iste Kristiis omnia tibi 
Qui alium paravit theatrum in coelj." 



136 WALKS IN ROME. 

when the whole arena became planted with living trees, shrubs, and 
flowers ; to complete which illusion the ground was made to open, and 
send forth wild animals from yawning clefts, instantly re-covered with 
bushes. 

" One may imagine the frantic excess to which the taste for gladia- 
torial combats was carried in Rome, from the preventive law of Augustus 
that gladiators should no more combat without permission of the senate ; 
that prietors should not give these spectacles more than twice a year ; 
that more than sixty couples should not engage at the same time ; and 
that neither knights nor senators should ever contend in the arena. The 
gladiators were classified according to the national manner of fighting 
which they imitated. Thus were distinguished the Gothic, Dacian, 
Thracian, and Samnite combatants ; the Retiarii, who entangled their 
opponents in nets thrown with the left hand, defending themselves with 
tridents in the right ; the Sccntores, whose special skill was in pursuit ; 
the Laqiieato7-es, who threw slings against their adversaries ; ih.e.Diinach(e, 
armed with a short sword in each hand ; the Hoplomachi, armed at all 
points ; the Mynmlloiies, so called from the figure of a fish at the crest 
of the Gallic helmet they wore ; the Bustuarii, who fought at funeral 
games ; the Bestiaiii, who only assailed animals ; other classes who 
fought on horseback, called Andabates ; and those combating in chariots 
drawn by two horses, Essedarii. Gladiators were originally slaves, or 
prisoners of war ; but the armies who contended on the Roman arena in 
later epochs, were divided into compulsory and voluntary combatants, 
the former alone composed of slaves, or condemned criminals. The 
latter went through a laborious education ni their art, supported at the 
public cost, and instructed by masters called Lanista:, resident in colleges, 
called Ludi. To the eternal disgrace of the morals of Imperial Rome, 
it is recorded that women sometimes fought in tlie arena, without more 
modesty than hired gladiators. The exhibition of himself in this 
character byCommodus, was a degradation of the imperial dignity, per- 
haps more infamous, according to ancient Roman notions, than the 
theatrical performances of Nero." — Hejnans' Story of Monuments in 
Rome. 

The Emperor Commodus (a.d. 180-182), frequently fought 
in the Coliseum himself, and killed both gladiators and 
wild beasts, calling himself Hercules, dressed in a lion's- 
skin, with his hair sprinkled with gold-dust. 

The gladiatorial combats came to an end, when, in a.d. 
403, an oriental monk named Telemachus, was so horrified 
at them, that he rushed into the midst of the arena and 
besought the spectators to renounce them : instead of 
listening to him, they stoned him to death. The first mar- 
tyrdom here was that of St. Ignatius, said to have been the 
child especially blessed by our Saviour — the disciple of John 
— and the companion of Polycarp — who was sent here from 
Antioch, where he was bishop. When brought into the 
arena, he knelt down, and exclaimed, "Romans who are 



COLISEUM, 137 

present, know that I have not been brought into this place 
for any crime, but in order that by this means I may merit 
the fruition of the glory of God, for love of whom I have 
been made prisoner. I am as the grain of the field, and 
must be ground by the teeth of the lions, that I may become 
bread fit for His table." The lions were then let loose, 
and devoured him, except the larger bones, which the 
Christians collected during the night. 

"It is related of Ignatius that he grow up in such innocence of heart 
and purity of life, that to him it was granted to hear the angels sing ; 
hence, when he became bishop of Antioch, he introduced into the 
service of his church the practice of singing the praises of God in 
responses, as he had heard the choirs of angels answering each other. 
His story and fate are so well attested, and so sublimely 
affecting, that it has always been to me a cause of surprise as well as 
regret to find so few representations of him." — Jameson^ s Sacked A ri, 693. 

Soon after the death of Ignatius, 115 'Christians were 
shot down here with arrows. Under Hadrian, a.d. 218, a 
patrician named Placidus, his wife Theophista, and his two 
sons, were first exposed here to the wild beasts, but when 
these refused to touch them were shut up in a brazen bull, 
and roasted by a fire lighted beneath. In 253, Abdon 
and Sennen, two rich citizens of Babylon, were exposed 
here to two lions and four bears, but on their refusing to 
attack them, were killed by the swords of the gladiators. In 
A.P. 259, Sempronius, Olympius, Theodulus, and Exuperia, 
were burnt at the entrance of the Coliseum, before the 
statue of the Sun. In a.d. 272, Sta. Prisca was vainly ex- 
posed here to a lion, then starved for three days, then 
stretched on a rack to have her flesh torn by iron hooks, 
then put into a furnace, and- — having survived all these tor- 
ments — was finally beheaded. In a.d. 277, Sta. Martina, 
another noble Roman lady, was exposed in vain to the 
beasts and afterwards beheaded in the Coliseum. St. 
Alexander under Antoninus j St. Potitus, 168; St. Eleuthe- 
rius, bishop of Illyria, under Hadrian ; St. Maximus, son of 
a senator, 284; and Vitus, Crescentia, and Modesta, under 
Domitian, were also martyred here.* 

"It is no fiction, but plain, sober, honest truthj to say : so suggestive 
and distinct is it at this hour : that, for a moment — actually in passing 
in — they who will, may have the whole great pile before them, as it 
used to be, with thousands of eager faces staring down into the arena, 

* See Hemans' Catholic Italy. 



138 WALKS IN ROME. 

and suclt a whirl of strife, and blood, and dust going on there, as no 
language can describe. Its solitude, its awful beauty, and its utter 
desolaticn, strike upon the stranger, the next, moment, like a softened 
sorrow ; and never in his life, perhaps, will he be so moved and over- 
come by any sight, not immediately connected with his own affections 
and afflictions. 

"To see it crumbling there, an inch a year; its walls and arches 
overgrown with green, its corridors open to the day ; the long grass 
growing in its porches ; young trees of yesterday springing up on its 
ragged parapets, and bearing fruit — chance produce of the seeds dropped 
there by the birds who build their nests within its chinks and crannies ; 
to see its pit of fight filled up with earth, and the peaceful cross planted 
in the centre ; to climb into its upper halls, and look down on ruin, 
ruin, ruin, all about it ; the triumphal arches of Constantine, Septimius 
Severus, and Titus, the Roman Forum, the Palace of the Caesars, the 
temples of the old religion, fallen down and gone ; is to see the ghost 
of old Rome, wicked, wonderful old city, haunting the very ground on 
which its people trod. It is the most impressive, the most stately, the 
most solemn, grand, majestic, mournful sight conceivable. Never, in 
its bloodiest prime, can the sight of the gigantic Coliseum, full and 
running over with the lustiest life, have moved one heart, as it must 
move all who look upon it now, a ruin. God be thanked : a ruin ! 

"As it tops all other ruins: standing there, a mountain among 
graves : so do its ancient influences outlive all other remnants of the old 
mythology and old butchery of Rome, in the nature of the fierce and 
cruel Roman people. The Italian face changes as the visitor approaches 
the city ; its beauty becomes devilish ; and there is scarcely one counten- 
ance in a hundred, among the common people in the streets, that would 
not be at home and happy in a lenovated Coliseum to-morrow." — 
Dickens. 

The spot where the Christian martyrs suffered is now 
marked by a tall cross, devoutly kissed by the faithful, — and 
all round the arena of the Coliseum, are the small chapels 
or " stations," used in the Via Crucis, which is observed 
here at 4 p.m. every Friday, when a confraternity clothed 
in grey, with only the eyes visible, is followed by a crowd 
of worshippers who chaunt and pray at each station in 
turn, — after which a Capuchin monk preaches from a 
pulpit on the left of the arena. These sermons are often 
very striking, being delivered in a familiar style, and upon 
popular subjects of the day, but they also often border 
on the burlesque. 

" Oswald voulut aller au Colisee pour entendre le Capucin quidevait 
y precher en plein air au pied de I'un des autels qui designent, dans I'in- 
terieur de I'enceinte, ce qu'on appelle la route de la Croix. Quel plus 
beau sujet pour I'eloquence que I'aspect de ce monument, que cette 
arene oil les martyrs ont succede aux gladiateurs ! JNIais il ne faut rien 
espercr a c<;(. egard du pauvre Capucin, qui ne connait de I'histoire des 



COLISEUM, 139 

hommes que sa propre vie. Neanmoins, si I'on parvient a ne pas 
ecouter son mauvais sermon, on se sent emu par les divers objets dont il 
est entoure. La plupart de ses auditeurs sont de la confrerie des 
Camaldules ; ils se revetent, pendant les exercises religieux, d'une espece 
de robe grise qui couvre entierement la tete et le corps, et ne laisse que 
deux petites ouvertures pour les yeux ; c'est ainsi que les ombres pour- 
raient etre representees. Ces hommes, ainsi caches sous leurs vetements, 
se prosternent la face contre terre, et se frappent la poitrine. Quand le 
predicateur se jette a genoux en criant viisericorde de pitie ! le peuple 
qui I'environn^ se jette aussi a genoux, et repete ce meme cri, qui va se 
perdre sous les vieux portiques du Colisee. II est impossible de ne pas 
eprouvcr alors une emotion profondement religieuse ; cet appel de la 
douleur a la bonte, de la terre au ciel, remue Fame jusque dans son 
sanctuaire le plus intime." — Madame de Stael. 

" ' C'est aujourd'hui Vendredi,' dit Guy, 'il y aura tbule au Colisee, 
11 vaudrait mieux, je crois, y aller un autre jour.' 

"'Non, non,' dit Eveline, 'c'est precisement pour cela que je veux 
y aller. On m'a dit qu'il fallait la voir ainsi rempli de monde, et que 
d'ailleurs cette fete etait curieuse.' 

" ' Ce n'est pas une fete,' dit Guy gravement, ' c'est un simple acte de 
devotion qui se repete tons les Vendredis.' 

*' 'En verite,' dit ^^veline, ' et pourquoi le Vendredi ? ' 

*'• Parceque c'est le jour ou Christ est mort pour nous; par cette 
raison, vous ne I'ignorez pas, ce jour est demeure consacre dans le monde 
Chretien .... dans le monde catholique du moins,' reponcit Guy. 

" ' Mais a quel propos choisit-on le Colisee pour s'y reunir ce jour 
la?' 

" ' Parceque le Colisee a ete baigne du sang des martyrs et que leur 
souvenir se mele la plus qu'ailleui-s a celui de la croix pour laquelle ils 
I'ont verse.' " — Mrs. Augustus Craveji in Anne Severin. 

The pulpit of the Cohseum was used for the stormy 
sermons of Gavazzi, who called the people to arms from 
thence in the revolution of March, 1848. 

It is well worth while to ascend to the upper galleries 
(a man who lives near the entrance from the Forum will 
open a locked door for the purpose), as then only is it 
possible to realize the vast size and grandeur of the 
building. 

"May, 1827. — Lastly, we ascended to the top of the Coliseum, 
Bunsen leaving us at the door, to go home ; and I seated myself just 
above the main entrance, towards the Forum, and there took my fare- 
well look over Rome. It was a delicious evening, and everything was 
looking to advantage ; — the huge Coliseum just under me, the tufts 
of ilex and aliternus and other shrubs that fringe the \\3L\h everywhere 
in the lower part, while the outside wall, with its top of gigantic stones, 
lifts itself high above, and seems like a mountain barrier of bare rock, 
enclosing a green and varied valley. I sat and gazed upon the scene 
with an intense and mingled feeling. The world could show nothing 
grander ; it was one which for years I had longed to see, and I was now 

L 



I40 WALKS IN ROME. 

looking at it for the last time. When I last see the dome of St. Peter's 
I shall seem to be parting from more than a mere town full of curiosi- 
ties, where the eye has been amused, and the intellect gratified. I never 
thought to have felt thus tenderly towards Rome ; but the inexplicable 
solemnity and beauty of her ruined condition has quite bewitched me, 
and to the latest hour of my life I shall remembe/ the Forum, the sur- 
rounding hills, and the magnificent Coliseum." — Arnold's Letters. 

The upper arches frame a series of views of the Aventine, 
the CapitoUne, the Coelian, and the Campagna, Hke a suc- 
cession of beautiful pictures. 

Those who visit the Cohseum by moonlight will realize 
the truthfulness of the following descriptions : — 

"I do remember me, that in my youth, 
When I was wandering, — upon such a night, 
I stood within the Coliseum's wall. 
Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome ; 
The trees which grew along the broken arches 
Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars 
Shone through the rents of ruin ; from afar 
The watch-dog bayed beyond the Tiber ; and 
More near from out the Caesar's palace came 
The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly, 
Of distant sentinels the fitful song 
Began and died upon the gentle wind :— 
Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach 
Appeared to skirt the horizon, yet they stood 
Within a bowshot where the Coesars dwelt, 
And dwell the tuneless birds of night, amidst 
A grove which springs through levell'd battlements. 
And twines its roots with the imperial hearths ; 
Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth ; — 
But the gladiator's bloody circus stands, 
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection ! 
While Cassar's chambers, and the Augustan halls, 
Grovel on earth in indistinct decay. 
And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon 
All this, and cast a wide and tender light, 
W^hich softened down the hoar austerity 
Of rugged desolation, and fill'd up, 
As 't were anew, the gaps of centuries ; 
Leaving that beautiful which still was so, 
And making that wliich was not, till the place 
Became religion, and the heart ran o'er 
With silent worship of the great of old : — 
The dead but scepter'd sovereigns, who still rule 
O'er spirits from their urns." Manfruk 

** Arches on arches ! as it were that Rome, 
Collecting the chief trophies of her line. 
Would build up all her triumphs in one dome, 
Her Coliseum stands j the moonbeams shine 



COLISEUM, 141 

As 't were its natural torches, for divine 
Should 1)0 the light which streams here, to illume 
The long-explored but still exhaustless mine 
Of contemplation ; and the azure gloom 
Of an Italian night, where the deep skies assume 
**Hues which' have words, and speak to ye of heaven, 
Floats o'er this vast and wondrous monument, 
And shadows forth its glory. There is given 
Under the things of earth, which Time hath bent, 
A spirit's feeling, and where he hath leant 
His hand, but broke his scythe, there is a power 
And magic in the ruined battlement, 
P'or which the palace of the present hour 
Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower." 

Childe Harold. 
"No one can form any idea of full moonlight in Rome Avho has not 
seen it. Every individual object is swallowed in the huge masses of 
light and shadow, and only the marked and principal outlines remain 
visible. Three days ago (Feb. 2, 1787) we made good use of a light 
and most beautiful night. The Coliseum presents a vision of beauty. 
It is closed at night ; a hermit lives inside in a little church, and beggars 
roost amid the ruined vaults. They had lighted a fire on the bare 
ground, and a gentle breeze drove the smoke across the arena. The 
lower portion of the ruin was lost, while the enormous walls above 
stood forth into the darkness. We stood at the gates and gazed upon 
this phenomenon. The moon shone high and bright. Gradually the 
smoke moved through the chinks and apertures in the walls, and the 
moon illuminated it like a mist. It was an exquisite moment!" — • 
Goethe. 

It is believed that the building of the Coliseum re- 
mained entire until the eighth century, and that its ruin 
dates from the invasion of Robert Guiscard, who destroyed 
it to prevent its being used as a stronghold by the Romans. 
During the middle ages it served as a fortress, and became 
the castle of the great family of Frangipani, who here gave 
refuge to Pope Innocent II. (Papareschi) and his family, 
against the anti-pope Anacletus II., and afterwards in the 
same way protected Innocent III. (Conti) and his brothers 
against the anti-pope Paschal II. Constantly at war with 
the Frangipani were the Annibaldi, who possessed a 
neighbouring fortress, and obtained from Gregory IX. a 
grant of half the Coliseum, which was rescinded by Inno- 
cent IV. During the absence of the popes at Avignon the 
Annibaldi got possession of the whole of the Coliseum, 
but it was taken away again in 131 2, and placed in the 
hands of the municipality, after which it was used for bull- 
fights, in which (as described by Monaldeschi) nobles of 



142 WALKS IN ROME. 

high rank took part and lost their lives. In 1381 the 
senate made over part of the rains to the Canons of the 
Lateran, to be used as a hospital, and their occupation is still 
commemorated by the arms of the Chapter (our Saviour's 
head between two candelabra) sculptured in various parts 
of the building. From the fourteenth century it began to 
be looked upon as a stone-quarry, and the Palazzos 
Farnese, Barberini, S. Marco, and the Cancellaria, were 
built with materials plundered from its walls. It is said 
that the first of these destroyers. Cardinal Farnese, only 
extorted permission from his reluctant uncle, Paul III., 
to quarry as much stone as he could remove in twelve 
hours, and that he availed -himself of this permission 
to let loose four thousand workmen upon the building. 
Sixtus V. endeavoured to utilize it by turning the arcades 
into shops, and establishing a woollen manufactory, and 
Clement XI. (1700-17 21) by a manufactory of saltpetre, but 
both happily failed. In the last century the tide of restor- 
ation began to set in. A Cannelite monk, Angelo Paoh, 
represented the iniquity of allowing a spot consecrated by 
such holy memories to be desecrated, and Clement XI. 
consecrated the arena to the memory of the martyrs 
who had suffered there, and erectea in one of the arch- 
ways the still existing chapel of Sta. Maria della Pieta. 
The hermit appointed to take care of this chapel was 
stabbed in 1742, which caused Benedict XIV. to shut in 
the Coliseum with bars and gates. Destruction has now 
become sacrilege, and the five last popes have all con- 
tributed to strengthen and preserve the walls which remain. 
Even so late as thirty years ago, however, the interior was 
(like that of an English abbey) an uneven grassy space 
littered with masses of ruin, amid which large trees grew 
and flourished, and the clearing out of the arena, though 
exhibiting more perfectly the ancient form of the building, 
is much to be regretted by lovers of the picturesque.* 

Among the ecclesiastical legends connected with the 
Coliseum, it is said that Gregory the Great presented some 
foreign ambassadors with a handful of earth from the arena 
as a relic for their sovereigns, and upon their receiving the 
gift with disrespect, he pressed it, when blood flowed from the 

* A work on the Flora of the Coliseum has been published by S. Deakin. 



COLISEUM. 143 

soil. Pias V. urged those who wished for reHcs to gather up 
the dust of the Cohseum, wet with the blood of the martyrs. 

In 1744 "the blessed Leonardo di Porto Maurizio," who 
is buried in S. Buonaventura, drew immense crowds to the 
Coliseum by his preaching, and obtained permission from 
Benedict XIV. to found the confraternity of "Amanti di 
Gesii e Maria," for whom the Via Crucis was established here. 
Recently the ruins have been associated with the holy beggar, 
Benoit Joseph Labre (beatified by Pius IX. in i860), who died 
at Rome in 1783, after a hfe spent in devotion. He was 
accustomed to beg in the Coliseum, to sleep at night under 
its arcades, and to pray for hours at its various- shrines. 

The name Coliseum is first found in the writings of 
the Venerable Bede, who quotes a prophecy of Anglo- 
Saxon pilgrims. 

" While stands the CoHseum, Rome shall stand ; 
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall ; 
And when Rome falls, the world."* 

The name was probably derived from its size ; the amphi- 
theatre of Capua was also called Colossus. 

Once or twice in the course of every Roman winter the 
Coliseum is illuminated with Bengal lights. 

" Les etrangers se donnent parfois I'amusement d'eclairer le Colisee 
avec des feux de Bengale. Cela ressemble un peu trop a un finale de 
melodrame, et on pent preferer comme illumination un radieux soleil ou 
les douces lueurs de la lune. Cependant j'avoue que la premiere fois 
que le Colisee m'apparut ainsi, embrase de feux rougeatres, son histoire 
me revint vivement a la pensee. Je trouvais qu'il avait en ce moment 
sa vraie couleur, la couleur du sang." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 156, 



CHAPTER V. 
THE VELABRUM AND THE GHETTO. 

S. Teodoro— Sta. Anastasia — Circus Maximus — S. Giorgio in Velabro 
— Arch of Septimius Severus — Arch of Janus — Cloaca-Maxima — 
Sta. Maria in Cosmedin — Temple of Vesta — Temple of Fortuna 
Virilis — House of Rienzi — Ponte-Rotto— Ponte Sublicio — S. Ni- 

* Quamdiu stat Colysaeus, stat et Roma ; quando cadet Colyssus, cadet et Roma 
cadet et mundus. 



144 WALKS IN ROME. 

colo in Carcere — Theatre of Marcellus — Portico of Octavia — Pes- 
cheria— Jewish Synagogue— Palazzo Cenci — Fon;ana Tartarughe — 
Palazzo Mattel — Palazzo Caetani — Sta. Caterina dei Funari — Sta. 
Maria Campitelli — Palazzo Margana — Convent of the Tor de' 
Specchi. 

THE second turn on the right of the Rorrjin Forum is the 
Via dei Fienili, formerly the Victis Tusr^s, so called from 
the Etruscan colony estabHshed there after the drying up of 
the marsh which occupied that site in the earliest periods of 
Roman history. During the empire, this street, leading from 
the Forum to the Circus IMaximus, was one of the most 
important. Martial speaks of its silk-mer:ers ; from an in- 
scription on a tomb we know that the fashionable tailors 
were to be found there ; and the perfumers' shops were of 
such abundance as to give to part of the street the name of 
Vicus Thurarius. At its entrance was the statue of the Etrus- 
can god, Vertumnus, the patron of the quarter.''' This was 
the street by which the processions of the Circensian games 
passed from the Forum to the Circus Maximus. In one of 
the Verrine Orations, an accusation brought by Cicero 
against the patrician Verres, was that from avaricious mo- 
tives he had paved even this street — used for processions 
of the Circus— in such a manner that he would not venture 
to use it himself t 

All this valley was once a stagnant marsh, left by 
inundations of. the Tiber, for in early times the river often 
overflowed the whole valley between the Palatine and the 
Capitoline hills, and even reached as far as the foot of 
the Quirinal, where the Goat's Pool, at which Romulus 
disappeared, is supposed to have formed part of the same 
swamp. Ovid, in describing the processions cf the games, 
speaks of the willows and rushes which once covered this 
ground, and the marshy places which one could not pass 
over except with bare feet : 

" Qua Velabra solent in Circum dicere pompas, 

Nil practcr salices crassaque c?.nna fuit, 

Saepe suburbanas rcdiens conviva per undas 

Cantat, et ad nautas ebria verba jacit. 

Nondum conveniens diversis iste figuris 

Nomen ab averse ceperat aiXuie deus. 

• See AmpJrc, Hist. Rom. ii. 289—292. 

t " Qiiis a signo Vertumni in circiim maximum irenit, qiiin is unoquoque gradu do 
avariti;i"tua commoncrctiir ? qiiam tu viam tcnsariini atque pompae ejus modi exe- 
-i.sti, lit lu ipse ire iion audcas."— //< Vcrrcm, i. 5^. 



CHURCH OF S. TEODORO. 14S 

Hie quoque lucus erat juncis et arundine densus, 

Et pede velato non adeunda palus, 
Stagna recesserunt, et aquas sua ripa coercet : 

Siccaque nunc tellus. Mos tamen ille manet." 

Fast, vi. 405. 

We even know the price which was paid for being ferried 
across the Velabrum : " it was a qiiadrans, three times as 
much as one pays now for the boat at the Ripetta." * The 
creation of the Cloaca Maxima had probably done much 
towards draining, but soine fragments of the marsh remained 
to a late period. 

According to VaiTO the nanie of the Velabrum was 
derived from vekere, because of the boats which were 
employed to convey passengers from one hill to the other. t 
Others derive the name from vela, also in reference to the 
mode of transit, or, according to another idea, in reference 
to the awnings which were stretched across the street to 
shelter the processions,— though the name was in existence 
long before any processions were thought of 

It was the waters of the Velabrum which bore the cradle 
of Romulus and Remus from the Tiber, and deposited it 
under the famous fig-tree of the Palatine, 



On the left of the 'Via dei Fienili (shut in by a railing, 
generally closed, but which will be opened on appealing to 
the sacristan next door) is the round Church of S. Teodoro. 
The origin of this building is unknown. It used to be 
called the temple of Romulus, on the very slight founda- 
tion that the famous bronze wolf, mentioned by Dionysius 
as existing in the temple of Romulus, was found near this 
spot. Dyer supposes that it may have been the Temple of 
Cybele ; this, however, was upon, and not under, the Pala- 
tine. Be they what they may, the remains were dedicated 
as a Christian church by Adrian I., in the eighth century, 
and some well-preserved mosaics in the tribune are of that 
time. 

*' It is curious to note in Rome how many a modern superstition has 
its root in an ancient one, and how tenaciously customs still cling to the 
old localities. On the Capitoline hill the bronze she-wolf was once 
worshipped as the wooden Bambino is now. It stood in the Temple of 
Romulus, and there the ancient Romans used to carry children to be 

* Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 44. See Ampfira, Hist. Rom. ii. 32. 
t Varro, de Ling. Lat. iv. 8. 



146 WALKS IN ROME, 

cured of their diseases by touching it. On the supposed site of the 
temple now stands the church dedicated to S. Teodoro, or Santo Toto, 
as he is called in Rome. Though names must have changed and the 
temple has vanished, and church after church has here decayed and been 
rebuilt, the old superstition remains, and the common people at certain 
periods still bring their sick children to Santo Toto, that he may heal 
them with his touch." — Story's Roba di Rot?ta. * 

Further on the left, still under the shadow of the Palatine 
Hill, is the large Church of Sta. Anastasia, co\\i2immg, beneath 
the altar, a beautiful statue of the martyred saint reclining 
on a faggot. 

" Notwithstanding her beautiful Greek name, and her fame as one of 
the great saints of the Greek Calendar, Sta. Anastasia is represented as 
a noble Roman lady, who perished during the persecution of Diocletian. 
She was persecuted by her husband and family for openly professing the 
Christian faith, but being sustained by the eloquent exhortations of St. 
Chrysogonus, she passed triumphantly, receiving in due time the crown 
of martyrdom, being condemned to the flames. Chrysogonus was put to 
death with the sword and his body thrown into the sea. - 

" According to the best authorities, these two saints did not suffer in 
Rome, but in Illyria ; yet in Rome we are assured that Anastasia, after 
her martyrdom, was buried by her friend Apollina in the garden of her 
house vmder the Palatine hill and close to the Circus Maximus. There 
stood the church, dedicated in the fourth century, and there it now 
stands. It was one of the principal churches in Rome in the time of 
St. Jerome, who, according to ancient tradition, celebrated mass at one 
of the altars, which is still regarded with peculiar veneration." — Mrs. 
yajnesons Sacred and Legendary Art. 

It was the custom for the mediaeval popes to celebrate 
their second mass of Christmas night in this church, for 



* "There is no doubt that many of the amusements, still more many of the reli- 
gious practices now popular in this capital, may be traced to sources in Pagan 
antiquity. The game of inorra, played with the fingers (the jnicare di^tis of the 
ancients) ; the rural feasting before the chapel of the Mado7inn del dii'itw Awore on 
Whit Monday ; the revelry and dancing siib din for the whole night on the Vigil of 
St. John, (a scene on the Lateran piazza, riotous, grotesque, but not licentious) ; 
the divining by dreams to obtain numbers for the lottery ; hanging ex voto pictures 
in churches to commemorate escapes from danger or recovery from illness ; the offer- 
ing of jewels, watches, weapons, &c., to the Madonna ; the adorning and dressing of 
sacred images, sometimes for particular days ; throwing flowers on the Madonna's 
figure when borne in processions (as used to be honoured the image, or stone, of Cy- 
bele) ; burning lights before images on the highways ; paying special honour to sacred 
pictures, under the notion of their having moved their eyes ; or to others, under the 
idea of their supernatural origin — made without hands ; wearing effigies or symbols 
as amulets (thus Sylla wore, and used to invoke, a little golden Apollo hung round 
his neck) ; suspending flowers to shrines and tombs ; besides other uses, in themselves 
blameless and beautiful, nor, even if objectionable, to be regarded as the genuine 
reflex of what is dogmatically taught by the Clun-ch. This enduring shadow thrown 
by Pagan over Christian Rome is, however, a remarkable feature in the story of that 
power whose eminence in ruling and influencing was so wonderfully sustained, nor 
destined to become extinct after empire had departed from the Seven Hills." — 
He>h-ans Monuments of Rome. 



CIRCUS MAXIMUS. 147 

which reason Sta. Anastasia is still especially commemor- 
ated in that mass. 

To the left of the high altar is the tomb of the learned 
Cardinal Mai, by the sculptor Benzoni, who owed every- 
thing to the kind interest with which this cardinal regarded 
him from childhood. The epitaph is remarkable. It is 
thus translated by Cardinal Wiseman : 

**I, who my life in wakeful studies wore, 

Bergamo's son, named Angelo, here lie. 
The empyreal robe and crimson hat I bore, 

Rome gave. Thou giv'st me, Christ, th' empyreal sky. 
Awaiting Thee, long toil I could endure : 
So with Thee be my rest now, sweet, secure." 

Through this church, also, we may enter some of the sub- 
terraneous chambers of the Palace of the Csesars. 

The valley near this, between the Palatine and the 
Aventine, was the site of the Circus Maximus, of which the 
last vestiges were destroyed in the time of Paul V. Its 
ground plan can, however, be identified, Avith the assistance 
of the small circus of Maxentius on the Via Appia, which 
still partially exists. It was intended for chariot-races and 
horse-races, and is said to have been first instituted by Tar- 
quinius Prisons after his conquest of the Latin town of 
Apiolae. It was a vast oblong, ending in a semicircle, and 
surrounded by three rows of seats, termed collectively 
cavea. In the centre of the area was the low wall called 
the spina^ at each end of which were the metce^ or goals. 
Between the metae were columns supporting the ova, egg- 
shaped balls, and Delphince, or dolphins, each seven in 
number, one of which was put up for each circuit made in 
the race. At the extremity of the Circus were the stalls for 
the horses and chariots called Carceres. This, the square 
end of the Circus, was termed oppidum, from its external re- 
semblance to a town, with walls and towers. In the Circus 
Maximus, which was used for hunting wild beasts, Julius 
Caesar made a canal, called Em-ipus* ten feet wide, 
between the seats and the racecourse, to protect the spec- 
tators. The Ludi Circe7ises were first established by Ro- 
mulus, to attract his Sabine neighbours, in order that he 
might supply his city with wives. The games were gener- 
ally at the expense of the aediles, and their cost was so 

* Made to flow with wine under Heliogabalus. 



148 WALKS IN ROME. 

great, that Caesar was obliged to sell his Tiburtine villa, to 
defray those given during his aidileship. Perhaps the most 
magnificent games known were those in the reign of Cari- 
nas (Imp. A.D. 283), when the Circus was transformed into 
an artificial forest, in which hundreds of Avild beasts and 
birds were slaughtered. At one time this Circus was 
capable of containing 385,000 persons. 

At the western extremity of the Circus Maximus stood 
the Temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera (said to have been 
vowed by the Dictator Albus Postumius, at the battle of the 
Lake Regillus), dedicated by the Consul Sp. Cassius, B.C. 
492. 

" Quand le pere de Cassius I'eut immole de ses propres mains a 
I'avidite patricienne, il fit don du pecule de son fils — im fils n'avait que 
son pecule comme un esclave — a ce meme temple de Ceres que Spurius 
Cassius avait consacre, et par une feroce ironie, mit au bas de la statue 
faite avec cet argent, et qu'il dediait a la deesse : ' Don de la famille 
Cassia.' 

" L'ironie etait d'autant plus amere, que Ton vendait aupres du 
temple de Ceres ceux qui avaient offense au tribun. 

" Ce temple, mis particulierement sous la surveillance des ediles et 
ou ils avaient leurs archives, etait le temple de la democratie romaine. 
Le farouche patricien le choisit pour lui faire adresser par son fils mort 
au service de la democratie un derisoire hommage." — Ampere, Hist. 
Rom. ii. 416. 

We must now retrace our steps for a short distance, and 
descend into a hollow on the left, which we have passed, 
between the churches of S. Teodoro and Sta. Anastasia. 

Here an interesting group of buildings still stands to mark 
the site of the famous ox-market. Forum Boarhim. In its 
centre a brazen bull, brought from Egina,* once commemor- 
ated the story of the oxen of Geryon, which Hercules left 
to pasture on this marshy site, and which were stolen hence 
by Cacus, — and is said by Ovid to have given a name to the 
locality : 

' Pontibus et magno juncta est celeberrima Circo 
Area, qua posito de bove nomen habet." 

Fast. vi. 478. 

The fact of this place being used as a market for oxen is 
mentioned by Livy.f 

The Forum Boarium is associated with several deeds of 
cruelty. After the battle of Cannae, a male and female Greek 

* Pliny, xxxiv. 2. t Livy, juu« 6a. 



FORUM BOARIUM. 149 

and a male and female Gaul were buried alive here ; * and 
here the first fight of gladiators took place, being intro- 
duced by M. and D. Brutus, at the funeral of their father in 
B.C. 264.1 Here the Vestal virgins buried the sacred utensils 
of their worship, at the spot called Doliola, when they fled 
from Rome after the battle of the Allia.J 

Amongst the buildings which once existed in the Forum 
Boarium, but of which no trace remains, were the Temple 
of the Sabine deity Matuta, and the Temple of Fortune, 
both ascribed to Servius Tullius. 

"Hac ibi luce ferunt Matutae sacra parenti, 
Sceptiferas Servi templa dedisse manus." 

Ovid, Fast. vi. 479. 
*' Lux eadem, Fortuna, tua est, auctorque, locusque, 
Sed superinjectis quis latet oede togis ? 

Servius est : hoc constat enim " 

Fast. vi. 569, 

The Temple of Fortune was rebuilt by Lucullus, and 
Dion Cassius mentions that the axle of Julius Caesar's car 
broke down in front of it on occasion of one of his 
triumphs. § Another temple in this neighbourhood was 
that of Pudicitia Patricia, into which the noble ladies re- 
fused to admit Virginia, because she had espoused a 
plebeian consul || (see Chap. X.). Here, also, was the Tem- 
ple of Hercules Victor, erected by Pompey.lT The two 
earliest triumphal arches were built in this forum, being 
in honour of L. Sterdnius, erected B.C. 196, after his vic- 
tories in wSpain. 

The building which first attracts attention, among those 
now standing, is the Arch of Janus., the Sabine god. It has 
four equal sides and arches, turned to the four points of the 
compass, and forty-eight niches, probably intended for the 
reception of small statues. Bas-reliefs on the inverted 
blocks employed in the lower part of this edifice, show that 
they must have been removed from earlier buildings. This 
was probably used as a portico for shelter or business for 
those who trafficked in the Forum ; there were many similar 
porticoes in ancient Rome. 

On the left of the arch of Janus is a narrow alley, 
spanned by low brick arches, which leads first to the beau- 

* Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. t Dyer, 104. X Livy, v. 40. 

§ Dion Cassius, Ixiii. 21. U Ampfire, iii. 48. 1 Vitruvius, UL 3. 



1 50 WALKS IN R IME, 

tiful clear spring of the Aqua Argentina, which, according 
to some authorities, is the place where Castor and Pollux 
watered their horses after the battle of the Lake Regillus. 

* ' Then on rode those strange horsemen, 

With slow and lordly pace ; 
And none who saw their bearing 

Durst ask their name or race. 
On rode they to the Forum, 

While laurel boughs and flowers 
From house-tops and from windows, 

Fell on their crests in showers. 

" When they drew nigh to Vesta, 
They vaulted down amain, 
And washed their horses in the well 

That springs by Vesta's fane. 
And straight again they mounted 

And rode to Vesta's door ; 
Then, like a blast, away they passed. 
And no man saw them more." 

Macaulay's Lays. 

The alley is closed by an arch of the celebrated Cloaca 
Maxima^ the famous drain formed by Tarquinius Priscus, 
fifth king of Rome, to dry the marshy land of the 
Velabrum. 

"Infima urbis loca circa Forum, aliasque interjectas collibus con- 
valles, quia ex planis locis hand facile evehebant aquas, cloacis a fas- 
tigio in Tiberim ductis siccat." — Livy, lib. i. c. 38. 

The Cloaca extended from the Forum to the Tiber, and 
is still, after 2,400 years, used, during the latter part of its 
course, for the purpose for which it was originally intended, 
though Pliny was filled with wonder that, in his time, it had 
already withstood the earthquakes, inundations, and acci- 
dents of seven hundred years. Strabo tells that the tunnel 
of the Cloaca was of sufficient height to admit a waggon 
laden with hay, but this probably supposes the water at its 
lowest. Agrippa, who cleaned out the Cloaca, navigated 
its whole length in a boat. The mouth of the Cloaca, com- 
posed of three concentric courses of blocks of peperino, 
without cement, is visible on the river a little to the right 
of the temple of Vesta. 

**Ces lieux ont encore un air et comme une odeur de marecage — 
quand on rode aux a,pproches de la nuit dans ce coin desert de Rome 
ou fut placee la scene des premiers moments de son premier roi, on y 
retrouve, a present mieux qu'au temps de Tite-Live, quelque chose de 



S. GIORGIO IN VELABRO. 151 

I'impression que ce lieu devait produire il y a vingt-cinq siecles, ^ 
I'tpoque oil, selon la vieille tradition, le berceau de Romulus s'arreta 
dans les boues du Velabre, au pied du Palatin, pres de I'antre Lupercal. 
II faut s'ecaiter un peu de cet endroit, qui etait au pied du vevsant 
occidental du Palatin, et faire quelques; pas a droite pour aller chercher 
les traces du Velabre la oil les rues et les habitations modernes ne les 
out pas entierement effacees. En s'avan9ant vers la Cloaca Maxima, 
on rencontre un enfoncement ou une vieille eglise, elle-meme au dedans 
humide et moisie, rappelle par sou nom, San Gioigio in Yelabro, que 
le Velabre a ete la. On voit sourdre encore les eaux qui I'alimentaient 
sous une voute sombre et froi le, tapissee de mousses, de scolopendres 
et de gra'ndes herbes frissonnant dans la nuit. Alentoiir, tout a un aspect 
triste et abandonne, abandonne*comme le furent au bord du marais, 
suivant I'antique recit, les enfants dont on croit presque ouir dans le 
cvepuscule les vagissements. L'imagination n'a pas de peine a se re- 
presenter les arbres et les plantes aquatiques qui croissaient sur le bord 
de cet enfoncement que voila, et a travers lesquelles la louve de la 
legende se glissait a cette heure pour venir boire a cette eau. Ces lieux 
sont assez peu frequentes et assez silencieux pour qu'on sc les figure 
comme ils etaient alors, alors qu'il n'y avait ici, comme dit Tite-Live, 
vrai cette fois, que des solitudes desertes : Vasfce time solitiidines erant.^'' 
— Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. 271. 

The church with the picturesque campanile near the arch 
of Janus, is S. Giorgio in Velabro, founded in the fourth 
century, as the Basihca Sempronia, but repeatedly rebuilt. 
The architrave above its portico was that where Rienzi 
affixed his famous inscription, announcing the return to 
the Good Estate : " I?t bf-eve tempo gli Roma?ii torneranno 
al loro antico biiono statoy The church is seldom open, 
except on its festival (Jan. 20), and during its station in 
Lent. The interior is in the basilica form, the long nave 
being lined by sixteen columns, of various sizes, and with 
strangely difterent capitals, showing that they have been 
plundered from ancient temples. The carving on some of 
the capitals is sharp and delicate. There is a rather hand- 
some ancient baldacchino, with an old Greek picture let 
into its front, over the high altar. Beneath is preserved a 
fragment of the banner of St. George. Some injured 
frescoes in the tribune replace mosaics which once existed 
here, and which were attributed to Giotto. In the centre 
is the Saviour, between the Virgin and St Peter ; on one- 
side, St. George with the martyr's palm and the warrior's 
banner, — on the other, St. Sebastian, with an arrow. Several 
fragments of carving and inscriptions are built into the side 
walls. The pictures are poor and ugly which relate to the 
saint of the church, St. George (the patron of Engla 



152 WALKS IN ROME. 

Germany), the knight of Cappadocia, who delivered the 
Princess CleodoHnda from the dragon. 

" Among good specimens of thirteenth century architecture is the 
portico of S. Giorgio, with Ionic columns and horizontal architrave, on 
Avhich is a gothic inscription, in quaint Leonine verse, informing us that 
the Cardinal (or Prior) Stephen, added this detail (probably the cam- 
panile also), to the ancient church— about the middle of the thirteenth 
century, as is supposed, though no date is given here ; and in the 
midst of an age so alien to classic influences, a work in which classic 
feeling thus predominates, is remarkable." — Hemans' Sacred Art. 

Partly hidden by the portico of this church, is the beau- 
tiful miniature Arch of Septimiiis Sez'e?'us, erected to the 
emperor, his wife Julia Pia, and his sons Caracalla and 
Geta, by the silversmiths (argentarii) who had their shops 
in the Forum Boarium on this very spot (" cujus loci qui 
invehent "). The part of the dedication relating to Geta 
(as in the larger arch of Septimius) was obliterated after 
his murder, and the words Fortissimo felicissimoque 
PRiNCiPi engraved in its place. The architecture and 
sculpture, part of which represents a sacrifice by the im- 
perial family, prove the decadence of art at this period. 

Proceeding in a direct line from the Arch of Janus, we 
reach the Church of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, on the site of 
a Temple of Ceres, dedicated by the consul Spurius Cassius, 
B.C. 493, and afterwards re-dedicated to Ceres and Proser- 
pine, probably by Augustus, who had been initiated into 
the Eleusinian mysteries in Greece. The church was built 
in the basilica form, in 782, by Adrian I., when the name 
Cosmedin, from the Greek «:o<t^oc, is supposed to have 
been given, from the ornaments with which he adorned it. 
It was intended for the use of the Greek exiles expelled 
from the East by the iconoclasts under Constantme Co- 
pronimus, and derived the epithet of Sta. Maria in Scuola 
Greca, from a " Schola " attached to it for their benefit. 
Another relic of the Greek colony which existed here is to 
be found in the name of the adjoining street, Via della 
Greca. In the middle ages the whole bank of the river 
near this was called Ripa Greca. 

The interior of this church is of great interest. The nave 
is divided from the aisles by twelve ancient marble columns, 
of which two have especially curious antique capitals, and 
are evidently remains of the temple which once existed here. 
The choir is ra'sed, as at S. Clemente. The pavement is 



ST A. MARIA IN COSMEDhV. 153 

of splendid Opus Alexandrinum (11 20); the ami ones are 
perfect ; there is a curious crypt ; the aUar covers an 
ancient bason of red granite, and is shaded by a gothic 
canopy, supported by four Egyptian granite pillars ; behind 
it is a fine episcopal throne, with lions, said to have been 
used by St. Augustine, an ancient Greek picture of the 
Virgin, and a graceful tabernacle of marble inlaid with 
mosaic, by Deodato Cosmati. In the sacristy is a very 
curious mosaic, one of the few relics preserved from the 
old St. Peter's, a.d. 705. (There is another in S. Marco at 
Florence.) Crescimbeni, the founder and historian of the 
Arcadian Academy (d. 1728), is buried in this church, of 
which he was a canon. 

In the portico is the strange and huge mask of stone, 
which gives the name of Bocca della Vejita to the neigh- 
bouring piazza. It was believed that if a witness,' whose 
truthfulness Avas doubtful, ^ere desired to place his hand in 
the mouth of this mask, he would be unable to withdraw it, 
if he were guilty of perjury. 

" Cette Bouche-de-Verite est une curieuse relique du moyen age. 
Elle servait aux jugements de Dieu. Figurez-vous une uieule de moulin 
qui ressemble, nor. pas a un visage humain, mais au visage de la lune : 
on y distingue des yeux, un nez et une bouche ouverte oil I'accuse 
mettait la main pour preter serment. Cette bouche mordait les menteurs ; 
au moins la tradition I'assure. J'y ai introduit ma dextre en disant que 
le Ghetto etait un lieu de delices^ et je n'ai pas ete mordu." — About, 
Rome Contcinporaine. 

On the other side of the portico is the tomb of Cardinal 
Alfanus, ob. 11 50. 

"The church was rebuilt under Calixtus II., about A.D. 1128, by 
Alfanus, Roman Chancellor, whose marble sepulchre stands in the 
atrium, with his epitaph, along a cornice, giving him that most com- 
prehensive title, 'an honest man,' vir pi'obus. Some more than half- 
faded paintings, a Madonna and Child, angels, and two mitred heads, 
on the wall behind the canopy, give importance to this Chancellor's 
tomb. Though now disfigured exteriorly by a modern facade in the 
worst style, interiorly by a waggon-vault roof and heavy pilasters, this 
church is still one of the mediaeval gems of Rome, and retains many 
olden details : the classic colonnades, probably left in their original 
place since the time of Adrian I.; and the fine campanile, one of the 
loftiest in Rome ; also the sculptured doorway, the rich intarsio pave- 
ment, the high altar, the marble and mosaic-inlaid ambones, the marble 
episcopal throne, with supporting lions and a mosaic decoration above, 
&c,, — -all of the twelfth century. But we have to regret the destruction 
of the ancient choir-screens, and (still more inexcusable) the white-washing 
of wall surfaces so as entirely to conceal the mediaeval paintings which 



154 WALKS IX ROME. 

adorned them, conformably to that once almost universal practice of 
polychrome decoration in churches, prescribed even by law under Cliarle- 
magne. Ciampini (see his valuable history of this basilica) mentions the 
'iron rods for curtains between the columns of tiie atrium, and those, 
still in their place, in the porch, with rings for suspending ; also a 
small chapel with paintings, at one end of the atrium, designed for 
those penitents who were not allowed to worship within the sacred 
building — as such, an evidence of disciplinary observance, retained till 
the twelfth century. Over the portal are some tiny bas-reliefs, so placed 
along the inner side of the lintel that many might pass underneath 
without seeing them : in the centre, a hand blessing, with the Greek 
action, between two sheep, laterally ; the four evangelistic emblems, and 
two doves, each pecking out of a vase, and one perched upon a dragon 
(more like a lizard), to signify the victory of the purified soul over mun- 
dane temptations." — Hemans" Christian Ai't. 

Close to this church stood the Palace of Pope Gelasiiis II. 

(1118). 

Opposite the church is a beautiful fountain, erected by 
one of the Medici, and beyond it the graceful round temple 
now called the Temple of Vesfa, supposed by Canina to 
have been that of Mater Matuta, and by others to have 
been that of Hercules founded by Pompey. It is known 
to have existed in the time of Vespasian. It is very small, 
the circumference of the peristyle being only 156 feet, and 
that of the cella 26 feet, — the height of the surrounding 
Corinthian columns (originally twenty in number) 32 feet. 
This temple was first dedicated as*a church under the name 
of S. Stefano delle Carrozze; it is now called Sta. Maria 
del Sole. 

This is not the Temple of Vesta (which was situated 
near the Church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice in the Forum) 
of which Horace wrote : — 

"Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis 
Littore Etrusco violenter undis. 
Ire dejectum monumenta regum 

Templaque Vestse." 

Carm. i. 2. 

The modern overhanging roof of the temple has been 
much objected to, as it replaces an entablature like that 
on the temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli ; but artists admire the 
exquisite play of light and shade caused by its rugged tiles, 
and, finding it a perfect " subject," wish for no change. 

"C'est aupres de la Bouche-de-Verite, devant le petit temple de 
Vesta, que la justice romaine execute un meurtrier sur cent. Qitand 
j'arrivai sur la place, on n'y guillotinait personne ; mais six cuisinieres, 



HOUSE OF RIENZL 155 

dont une aussi belle que Junon, dansaient la tarantelle au son d'lm 
tambour de basque. Malheureusement elles divinerent ma qualite 
d'etranger, et elles se mirent a polker centre la mesure." — About. 

Close to this — overhanging a little hollow way — is the 
Temple of Fortima Virilis, built originally by Servius Tullius, 
but rebuilt during the republic, and, if the existing building 
is really republican, the most ancient temple remaining 
in Rome. It is surrounded by Ionic columns (one side 
being enclosed in other buildings), 28 feet high, clothed 
with hard stucco, and supporting an entablature adorned 
with figures of children, oxen, candelabra, &:c. The Roman 
matrons had a great regard for this goddess, who was sup- 
posed to have the power of concealing their personal imper- 
fections from the eyes of men. At the close of the tenth 
century this temple was consecrated to the Virgin, but has 
since been bestowed upon St. Mary of Egypt. 

Hard by, is a picturesque end of building, laden with rich 
but incongruous sculpture, at one time called " The House 
of Pilate," but now known as the House of Rienzi. It 
derives its present name from a long inscription over a 
doorway, which tallies with the bombastic epithets assumed 
by " The Last of the Tribunes " in his pompous letter of 
Aug. I, 1347, when, in his semi-madness, he summoned 
kings and emperors to appear before his judgment-seat. 
The inscription closes : — 

" Primus de primis magnus Nicolaus ab imis, 
Erexit patrum decus ob i^enovare suorum. 
Stat patris Crescens matnsque Theodora nomen. 
Hoc culmen clarum caro de pignore gessit, 
Davidi tribuit qui pater exhibuit." 

It is believed, from the inscription, that the house was 
fortified by Nicholas, son of Crescentius and Theodora, 
who gave it to David, his son ; that the Crescentius alluded 
to was son of the famous patrician who headed the populace 
against Otho III. ; and that, three centuries later, the house 
may have belonged to Cola di Rienzi, a name which is, in 
fact, only popular language for Niccola Crescenzo. It is, 
however, known that Rienzi was not born in this house, 
but in a narrow street behind S. Tommaso, in the Rione 
alia Regola, where his father Lorenzo kept an inn, 
and his mother, Maddalena, gained her daily bread as a 
washerwoman and water-carrier — so were the Crescenzi 
fallen ! 



156 WALKS IN ROME. 

Here is the entrance to a suspension-bridge, which 
joins the remaining arches of the Ponte Rotto, and leads 
to the Trastevere, On this site was the Pons ^mihus, 
begun, B.C. i8o, by M. ^Emihus Lepidus and Marcus 
Fulvius Nobihor, and finished by P. Scipio Africanus and 
L. Mummius, the censors, in B.C. 142. Hence the body 
of the Emperor Hehogabalus was throwm into the Tiber. 
The bridge has been three times rebuilt by different popes, 
but two of its arches were finally carried aw^ay in an inunda- 
tion of 1598, and have never since been replaced. The 
existing remains, which only date from the time of Julius 
III., are highly picturesque. 

" Quand on a etabli un pont en fil de fer, on lui a donne pour base les 
piles du Ponte-Rotto, eleve au nioyen age sur les fondements du Pons 
PalatinuSj qui fut acheve sous la censure de Scipion I'Africain. Scipion 
I'Africain et un pont en fil de fer, voila de ces contrastes qu'on ne 
trouve qu'a Rome." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 209. 

From this bridge is the best view of the Isola Tiberina 
and its bridges ; and hence, also, the Temple of Vesta is 
seen to great advantage. Just below is the mouth of the 
Cloaca Maxima. 

"Quand du Ponte-Rotto on considere le triple cintre de I'ouverture 
par laquelle la Cloaca Maxima se dechargeait dans le Tibre, on a devant 
les yeux un monument qui rappelle beaucoup de grandeur et beaucoup 
d'oppression. Ce monument extraordinaire est une page importante de 
I'histoire romaine. 11 est a la fois la supreme expi-ession de la puissance 
des rois etrusques et le signe avant-coureur de leur chute. L'on croit 
voir Tare triomphal de la royaute par ou devait entrer la republique." 
— Ampere, Hist. Rom. ii. 233. 

In the bed of the river a little lower doA\Ti may be seen, 
at low water, some massive fragments of masonry. Here 
stood the Po7is Stiblicms, the oldest bridge in Rome, built 
by Ancus Martins (b.c. 639), on which Horatius Codes 
and his two companions "kept the bridge" against the 
Etruscan army of Lars Porsenna, till — 

" Back darted Spurius Lartius ; 

Herminius darted back : 
And, as they passed, beneath their feet 

They felt the timbers crack. 
But when they turned their faces, 

And on the farther shore 
Saw brave Horatius stand alone, 

They would have crossed once more. 



S. GIOVANNI DECOLLATO. STA. GALL A. 157 

** But with a crash like thunder 
Fell every loosened beam, 
And, like a dam, the mighty wreck 

Lay right athwart the stream : 
And a long shout of triumph 

Rose from the walls of Rome, 
As to the highest turret-tops 

Was splashed the yellow foam." 

Macatday s Lays. 

The name " Sublicius " came from the wooden beams of 
i'.s construction, which enabled the Romans to cut it away. 
The bridge was rebuilt by Tiberius and again by Antoninus 
Pius, each time of beams, but upon stone piers, of Avhich 
the present remains are fragments, the rest having been 
destroyed by an inundation in the time of Adrian I. 

On the Trastevere bank, between these two bridges, 
half hidden in shrubs and ivy (but worth examination in a 
boat), are two gigantic Heads of Lions, to which in ancient 
times chains were fastened, and drawn across the river to 
prevent hostile vessels from passing. 

Near this we enter the Via S. Giovanni Decol/ato, decor- 
ated with numerous heads of John the Baptist in the dish, 
let into the walls over the doors of the houses. The 
" Confraternita della Misericordia di S. Giovanni Decollato," 
founded in 1488, devote themselves to criminals condemned 
to death. They visit them in prison, accompany them to 
execution, receive their bodies, and offer masses for their 
souls in their little chapel. Vasari gives the highest praise 
to two pictures of Francesco Salviati in the Church of S. 
Giov. Decollato, " before which all Rome stood still in 
admiration, "^ — representing the appearance of the angel to 
Zacharias, and the meeting of the Virgin and Elizabeth. 

On the left is the Hospital of Sta. Gaila, commemorating 
the pious foundation of a Roman matron in the time of 
John I. (523 — 526), who attained such celebrity, that she is 
still commemorated in the Roman mass by the prayer— 

"Almighty and merciful God, who didst adorn the blessed Galla 
with the virtue of a wonderful love towards thy poor ; grant us, through 
her merits and prayers, to practise works of love, and to obtain Thy 
mercy, through the Lord, &c. Amen." 

On, or very near this site, stood the Porta Car?nentaiis, 
which, with the temple beside it, commemorated Carmenta, 
the supposed mother of Evander, a Sabine prophetess, who 



158 WALKS IN ROME. 

is made by Ovid to predict the future grandeur of Rome.* 
Carmenta was especially invoked by women in childbirth. 
The Porta Carmen talis was reached from the Forum by the 
Vicus Jugarius. It was by this route that the Fabii went 
forth to meet their doom in the valley of the Crimera. 
The Porta had two gates — one for those who entered, the 
other for those who left it, so that in each case the passenger 
passed through the " Janus," as it was called, upon his 
right. After the massacre of the Fabii, the road by which 
they left the city was avoided, and the Janus Carmentalis 
on the right was closed, and called the Porta Scelerata. 

" Carmentis portae dextro via proxima Jano est. 
Ire per banc noli, quisquis es ; omen habet." 

Ovid, Fast. ii. 201. 

Just beyond the Porta Carmentalis was the district called 
Tare?itwfi, where there was a subterranean " Ara Ditis 
Patris et Proserpinse." 

We now reach (left) the Church of S. Nicolo in Ca?'- 
cere. It has a mean front, with an inscription in honour 
of one of the Aldobrandini failiily, and is only interesting 
as occupying the site of the three Temples of Ju7io Mattita, 
Fiety (?), and Hope, which are believed to mark the site of 
the Forum Olitorium. The vaults beneath the church 
contain the massive substructions of these temples, and 
fragments of their columns. 

The central temple is believed to be that of Piety, built 
by M. Acilius Glabrio, the duumvir, in B.C. 165 (though 
Pliny says that this temple was on the site afterwards occu- 
pied by the theatre of Marcellus), in fulfilment of a vow 
made by his father, a consul of the same name, on the day 
of his defeating the forces of Antiochus the Great, king of 
Syria, at Thermopylae. Others endeavour to identify it with 
the temple built on the site of the Decemviral prisons, to 
keep up the recollection of the famous story, called the 
" Caritas Romana," — of a woman condemned to die of 
hunger in prison being nourished by the milk of her own 
daughter. Pliny and Valerius Maximus tell the story as 
of a mother; Festus only speaks of a father ;t — yet art 
and poetry have always followed the latter legend. A cell 
is shown, by torchlight, as the scene of this touching 
incident. 

* Fasti, i. 515. t Plin. H. N. vii. 36 ; Val. Max. v. 4 — 7; Festus, p. 609. 



CARITAS ROM AN A. 159 

" There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear light 
What do I gaze on ? Nothing. Look again ! 
Two forms are slowly shadowed on my sight — 
Two insulated phantoms of the brain : 
It is not so ; I see them full and plain — 
An old man, and a female young and fair, 
Fresh as a nursing mother, in whose vein 
The blood is nectar : — but what doth she there, 
With her unmantled neck, and bosom white and bare ? 

" But here youth offers to old age the food, 
The milk of his own gift :— it is her sire, 
To whom she renders back the debt of blood 
Born with her birth. No, he shall not expire 
While in those warm and lovely veins the fire 
Of health and holy feeling can provide 
Great Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higher 
Than Egypt's river ; — from that gentle side 
Drink, drink, and live, old man ! Heaven's realm holds 
no such tide. 

** The starry fable of the milky-way 
Has not thy story's purity ; it is 
A constellation of a sweeter ray. 
And sacred Nature triumphs more in this 
Reverse of her decree, than in the abyss 
Where sparkle distant worlds : — Oh, holiest nurse ! 
No drop of that clear stream its way shall miss 
To thy sire's heart, replenishing its source 
With life, as our freed souls rejoin the universe." 

Childe Harold, 

A memorial of this story of a prison is preserved in the 
name of the church — S. Nicolo in Carcere. It was pro- 
bably owing to this legend that, in front of the Temple 
of Piety, was placed the Colwnna Ladaria, where infants 
were exposed, in the hope that some one would take pity 
upon and nurse them out of charity. 

A wide opening out of the street near this, with a pretty 
fountain, is called the Piazza Mo7ita7iara, and is one of the 
places where the country people collect and wait for hire. 

" Le dimanche est le jour oil les paysans arrivent a Rome. Ceux qui 
cherchent I'emploi de leurs bras viennent se louer aux marchands de 
campagne, c'est-a-dire aux fermiers. Ceux qui sont loues et qui 
travaillent hors des murs viennent faire leurs affaires et renouveler leurs 
provisions, lis entrent en ville au petit jour apres avoir marche une 
bonne partie de la nuit. Chaque famille amene un ane, qui porte le 
bagage. Hommes, femmes, et enfants, poussant leur ane devant eux, 
s'etablissent dans un coin de la place Farnese, ou de la place Montanara. 
Les boutiques voisines restent ouvertes jusqu'a midi, par un privilege 
special. On va, on vient, en achete, on s'accroupit dans les coins 



i6o WALKS IN ROME, 

pour compter les pieces de cuivre. Cependant les anes s'e repos nit sur 
leurs quatre pieds au bord des fontaines. Les femmes, vetuts d'un 
corset en cuirasse, d'un tablier rouge, et d'une veste rayee, encadrent 
leur figure halee dans une draperie de linge tres-blanc. Elles sont 
toutes a peindre sans exception : quand ce n'est pas pour la beaute de 
leurs traits, c'est pour I'elegance naive de leurs attitudes. Les hommes 
ont le long manteau bleu de ciel et le chapeau pointu ; la-dessous leurs 
habits de travail font merveille, quoique roussis par le temps et couleur 
de perdrix. Le costume n'est pas uniforme; on voit plus d'un manteau 
amadou rapiece de bleu vif ou de rouge garance. Le chapeau de paille 
abonde en ete. La chaussure est tres-capricieuse ; Soulier, botte et 
sandale foulent successivement le pave. Les dechausses trouvent ici pres 
de grandes et profondes boutiques oix I'on vend des marchandises 
d'occasion. 11 y a des souliers de tout cuir et de tout age dans ces tresors 
de la chaussure ; on y trouverait des cothurnes de Fan 500 de la 
republique, en cherchant bien. Je viens de voir un pauvre diable qui 
essayait une paire de bottes a revers. Elles vont a ses jambes comme 
ime plume a I'oreille d'un pore, et c'est plaisir de voir la grimace qu'il 
fait chaque fois qu'il pose le pied a terre. Mais le marchand le fortifie 
par de bonnes paroles : ' Ne crains rien,' lui dit-il, ' tu souffriras pendant 
cinq ou six jours, et puis tu n'y penseras plus.' Un autre marchand 
debite des clous a la livre : le chaland les enfonce lui-meme dans ses 
semelles ; il y a des bancs ad hoc. Le long des murs, cinq ou six 
chaises de paille servent de boutique a autant de barbiers en plein vent. 
II en coute un sou pour abattre une barl^e de huit jours. Le patient, 
barbouille de savon, regarde le ciel d'mi ceil resigne ; le barbier lui 
tire le nez, lui met les doigts dans la bouche, s'interrompt pour aiguiser 
le rasoir sur un cuir attache au dossier de la chaise, ou pour ecorner une 
galette noire qui pend au mur. Cependant I'operation est faite en un 
tour de main ; le rase se leve et sa place est prise. II pourrait aller se 
laver a la fontaine, mais il trouve plus simple de s'essuyer du revers de 
sa manche. 

" Les ecrivains publics alternent avec les barbiers. On leur apporte les 
lettres qu'on a recues ; ils les lisent et font la reponse : total, trois sous. 
Des qu'un paysan s'approche de la table pour dieter quelque-chose, cinq 
ou six curieux se reunissent officieusement autour de lui pour mieux 
entendre. II y a une certaine bonhomie dans cette indiscretion. Chacun 
place son mot, chacun donne un conseil : ' Tu devrais dire ceci.' — ' Non ; 
dis plutot cela.* — ' Laissez-le parler,' crie un troisieme, 'ilsait mieux 
que vous ce qu'il veut faire ecrire.' 

" Quelques voitures chargees de galettes d'orge et de mais circulent au 
milieu de la foule. Un marchand de liraonade, arme d'une pince de 
bois, ecrase les citrons dans les verres. L'homme sobre boit a la fontaine 
en faisant un aqueduc des bords de son chapeau, Le gourmet achete 
des viandes d'occasion devant un petit etalage, ou les rebuts de cuisine 
se vcndcnt a la poignee. Pour un sou, le debitant remplit de boeuf 
hache et d'os de cotelettes un morceau de vieux journal ; une pincee 
de sel ajoutee sur le tout pare agreablement la denree. L'acheteur 
marchande, non sur le prix, qui est invariable, mais sur la quantite ; il 
prend au tas quelques bribes de viande, et on le laisse faire ; car rien ne 
se conclut a Rome sans marchander. 

" Les ermites et les moines passent de groupe en groupe en quetant 



THE A TRE OF MARC ELL US. 1 6 1 

pour les ames du purgatoire. M'est avis que ces pauvres ouvriers font 
leur purgatoire en ce monde ; et qu'il vaudrait mieux leur donner de 
I'argent que de leur en demander ; ils donnent pourtant, et sans se faire 
tlrer I'oreille. 

'* Quelquefois un beau parleur s'amuse a raconter une histoire ; on fait 
cercle autour de lui, et a mesure que I'auditoire augmente il eleve la voix. 
J'ai vu de ces conteurs qui avaient la physionomie bien fine et bien 
heureuse ; mais je ne sais rien de charmant comme I'attention de leur 
public. Les peintres du quinzieme siecle ont du prendre a la place 
Montanara les disciples qu'ils groupaient autour du Christ.'' — Aboiit^ 
Rome Conteniporaine. 

An opening on the left discloses the vast substructions of 
the Theatre of Mar ccUus. This huge edifice seems to have 
been projected by Julius Csesar, but he probably made little 
progress in it. It was actually erected by Augustus, and 
dedicated {c. 13 B.C.) in memory of the young nephew 
whom he married to his daughter Julia, and intended as 
his successor, but who was cut off by an early death. The 
theatre was capable of containing 20,000 spectators, and 
consisted of three tiers of arches, but the upper range has 
disappeared, and the lower is very imperfect. Still it 
is a grand remnant, and rises magnificently above the 
paltry houses which surround it. The perfect proportions 
of its Doric and Ionic columns served as models to 
Palladio. 

" Le mur exterieur du portique demi-circulaire qui enveloppait les 
gradins ofifre encore a notre admiration deux etages d'arceaux et 
de colonnes doriques et ioniques d'une beaute presque grecque. L'etage 
superieur, qui devait etre corinthien, a disparu. \uG^ fornices, on vodtes 
du rez-de chaussee,sont habitees encore xujourd'hui comme elles I'etaient 
dans I'antiquite, mais plus lionnetement, par de pauvres gens qui 
vendent des ferrailles. Au-dessous des belles colonnes de I'enceinte 
exterieure, on a constant des maisons modernes dans lesquelles sont 
pratiquees des fenetres, et a ces fenetres du theatre de Marcellus, on 
voit des pots a fleurs, ni plus ni moins qu'a une mansarde de la rue 
Saint Denis ; des chemises sechent sur I'entablement ; descheminees sur- 
montent la ruine romaine, et un grand tube se dessine a I'extremite. 

" Dans les jeux celebres a I'occasion de la dedicace du theatre de Mer- 
cellus, on vit pour la premiere fois un tigre apprivoise, tigrim vian- 
suefactum. Dans ce tigre le peuple romain pouvait contempler son 
image." — Ampere, Emp. i. 256. 

In the middle ages this theatre was the fortress of the 
great family of Pierleoni, the rivals of the Frangipani, who 
occupied the Coliseum ; their name is commemorated by 
the neighbouring street. Via Porta Leone. The constant 
warfare in which they were engaged with their neighbours 



i62 WALXS IN ROME. 

did much to destroy the building, whose interior became 
reduced to a mass of ruins, forming a hill, upon which 
Baldassare Peruzzi (1526) built the Palazzo Savelli, of 
which the entrance, flanked by the two armorial bears of 
the family, may be seen in the street (Via Savelli) which 
leads to the Ponte Quattro Capi. 

*' An dix-septieme siecle, les Savelli exei^aient encore une jurisdiction 
feodale. Leur tribunal, aussi regulierement constitue que pas un, s'ap- 
pellait Corte Savella. * lis avaient le droit d'arracher tous les ans un 
criminal a la peine de mort : droit de grace, droit regalien reconnu par 
la monarchic absolue des papes. Les femmes de cette illustre famille 
ne sortaient point de leurs palais sinon dans un carosse bien ferme. 
Les Orsini et les Colonna se vantaient que pendant les siecles, aucun traite 
de paix n'avait ete conclu entre les princes Chretiens, dans lequel ils 
n'eussent ete nominativement compris." — About. 

The palace has now passed to the family of Orsini- 
Gravina, who descended from a senator of a.d, 1200. The 
princes of Orsini and Colonna, in their quality as attendants 
on the throne [principi assistenti al sog/io), take precedence 
of all other Roman nobles. 

" Nicolovius will remember the Theatre of Marcellus, in which the 
Savelli family built a palace. My house is half of it. It has stood 
empty for a considerable time, because the drive into the courtyard (the 
interior of the ancient theatre) rises like the slope of a mountain upon 
the heaps of rubbish ; although the road has been cut in a zig-zag, it is 
still a break-neck affair. There is another entrance from the Piazza 
Montanara, whence a flight of seventy-three steps leads up to the same 
story 1 have mentioned ; the entrance-hall of which is on a level with 
the top of the carriage-way through the courtyard. The apartments in 
which we shall live are those over the colonnade of Ionic pillars forming 
the third story of the ancient theatre, and some, on a level with them, 
which have been built out like wings on the rubbish of the ruins. These 
enclose a little quadrangular garden, which is indeed very small, only 
about eighty or ninety feet long, and scarcely so broad, but so delightful ! 
It contains three fountains — an abundance of flowers : there are orange- 
trees on the wall between the windows, and jessamine under them. We 
mean to plant a vine besides. From this story, you ascend forty steps, 
or jnore, higher, where I mean to have my own study, and there are 
most cheerful little rooms, from which you have a prospect over the 
whole country beyond the Tiber, Monte Mario, and St. Peter's, and 
can see over St. Pietro in Montorio, indeed almost as far as the Aven- 
tine. It would, I think, be possible besides to erect a loggia upon the 
roof (for which I shall save money from other things), that we may 
have a view over the Capitol, Forum, Palatine, Coliseum, and all the 
inhabited parts of the city." — Niebuhi-''s Letters. 

* Beatrice and Lucrezia Cenci were imprisoned in the Corte Savella, and led 
thence to excc.itioii. 



PORTICO OF OCTAVIA. 163 

Following the wall of the theatre, down a filthy street, 
we arrive at the picturesque group of rains of the " Porticus 
Octaviae," erected by Augustus, in honour of his sister (the 
unhappy wife of Antony), close to the theatre to which 
he had given the name of her son. The exact form of the 
building is known from the Pianta Capitolina, — that it was 
a parallelogram, surrounded by a double arcade of 270 
columns, and enclosing the temples of Jupiter and Juno, 
built by the Greek architects, Batracus and Saurus.* 

With regard to these temples, Pliny narrates a fact which 
reminds one of the story of the Madonna of Sta. Maria 
Nuova.t The porters having carelessly carried the statues 
of the gods to the wrong temples, it was imagined that they 
had done so from divine inspiration, and the people would 
not venture to remove them, so that the statues always 
remained in the wrong temples, though their surroundings 
were utterly unsuitable. 

The Portico of Ocfavia, built by Augustus, occupied the 
site of an earlier portico — the Porticus Metelli — built by 
A. Caecihus Metellus, after his triumph over Andriscus in 
Macedonia, in B.C. 146. Temples of Jupiter Stator and 
Juno existed also in this portico, one of them being the 
earliest temple built of marble in Rome. Before these 
temples Metellus placed the famous group of twenty-five 
bronze statues, which he had brought from Greece, executed 
by Lysippus for Alexander the Great, and representing that 
conqueror himself and twenty-four horsemen of his troop 
who had fallen at the Granicus.:}: 

The existing fragment of the portico is the original en- 
trance to the whole. The building had suffered from fire 
in the reign of Titus, and was restored by Septimius Se- 
verus, and of this time is the large brick arch on one side 
of the ruin. 

"It was in this hall of Octavia that Titus and Vespasian celebrated 
their triumph over Israel with festive pomp and splendour. Among the 
Jewish spectators stood the historian Flavins Josephus, who was one of 
the followers and flatterers of Titus .... and to this base [ewish 
courtier we owe a description of the triumph." — Gregorovius, Wander- 
jahre in Italien. 

Within the portico is the Chicrch of S. Angelo in Peschcria. 
Here it was that Cola Rienzi summoned, at midnight — May 

• See the account of the Basilica of St. Lorenzo fuori Mura. 
t See Ch. IV. X See Dyer's City of Rome. 



1 64 WALKS IN ROME. 

20, 1347 — all good citizens to hold a meeting for the 
re-establishment of " the good estate ; " here he kept the 
vigil of the Holy Ghost ; and hence he went forth, bare- 
headed, in complete armour, accompanied by the papal 
legate, and attended by a vast multitude, to the Capitol, 
where he called upon the populace to ratify the Good 
Estate. 

It is said that one of the causes which most incited the 
indignation of Rienzi against the assumption and pride of 
the Roman families, was the fact of their painting their arms 
on the ancient Roman buildings, and thus in a manner appro- 
priating them to their own glory. Remains of coats of arms 
thus painted may be seen on the front wall of the Portico of 
Octavia. It was also on this very wall that Rienzi painted 
his famous allegorical picture. In this painting kings and men 
of the people were seen burning in a furnace, with a woman 
half consumed, who personified Rome, — and on the right 
was a church, whence issued a white-robed angel, bearing 
in one hand a naked sword, while with the other he plucked 
the woman from the flames. On the church tower were 
SS. Peter and Paul, crying to the angel, •' Aquilo, aquilo, 
succurri a I'albergatrice nostra," — and beyond this were 
represented falcons (typical of the Roman barons) falling 
from heaven into the flames, and a white dove bearing 
a wreath of olive, which it gave to a little bird (Rienzi), 
which was chased by the falcons. Beneath was in- 
scribed : " I see the time of great justice, do thou await 
that time." 

" Then turn we to her latest tribune's name, 
From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee, 
Redeemer of dark centuries of shame — 
The friend of Petrarch— hope of Italy — 
Rienzi ! last of Romans ! While the tree 
Of Freedom's wither'd trunk puts forth a leaf, 
Even for thy tomb a garland let it be— 
The forum's champion, and the people's chief — 
Her newborn Numa thou — with I'eign, alas ! too brief." 

C/iilde Harold. 

Through the brick arch of the Portico we enter upon 
the ancient Fcscheria, with the marble fish-slabs of imperial 
times still remaining in use. It is a striking scene — the 
dark, many-storied houses almost meeting overhead and 
framing a narrow strip of deep blue sky, — below, the bright 



THE GHETTO. 165 

groups of figures and rich colouring of hanging cloths and 
drapery. 

" C'est une des ruines les plus remarquables de Rome, et une de celles 
qui offrent ces contrastes piquants entre le passe et le present, amuse- 
ment perpetuel de I'imagination dans la ville des contrastes. Le 
portique d'Octavie est, aujourd'hui, le marche aux poissons. Les 
colonnes et le fronton s'elevent au milieu de I'endroit le plus sale de 
Rome ; leur effet n'en est pas moins pittoresque, il Test peut-etre davan- 
tage. Le lieu est fait pour une aquarelle, et quand un beau soleil eclaire 
les debris antiques, les vieux murs sombres de la rue etroite oil la 
poisson se vend sur des tables de marbre blanc, et a travers laquelle des 
nattes sont tendues, on a, a cote du monument romain, le spectacle 
d'un marche du moyen age, et un peu le souvenir d'un bazar d'Orient." 
— Ampere, Einp. i. 179. 

Here we are in the centre of the Jews' quarter — the 
famous Ghetto. 

The name " Ghetto " is derived from the Hebrew word 
chat, broken, destroyed, shaven, cut down, cast off, aban- 
doned (see the Hebrew in Isaiah xiv. 12 ; xv. 2 ; Jer. xlviii. 
25, 27; Zech. xi. 10 — 14; &c.). The first Jewish slaves 
were brought to Rome by Pompey the Great, after he had 
taken Jerusalem, and forcibly entered the Holy of Holies. 
But for centuries after this they lived in Rome in wealth 
and honour, their princes Herod and Agrippa being re- 
ceived with royal distinction, and finding a home in the 
Palace of the Caesars, — in which Berenice (or Veronica), the 
daughter of Agrippa, presided as the acknowledged mistress 
of Titus, who would willingly have made her empress of 
Rome. The chief Jewish settlement in imperial times was 
nearly on the site of their present abode, but they were not 
compelled to live here, and also had a large colony in the 
Trastevere ; and when St. Peter was at Rome (if the Church 
tradition be true), he dwelt, with Aquila and Priscilla, on 
the slopes of the Aventine. Julius, Augustus, and Tiberius 
C^sar treated the Jews with kindness, but under Caligula 
they already met with ill-treatment and contempt, — that 
emperor being especially irritated against them as the only 
nation which refused to yield him divine honours, and 
because they had successfully resisted the placing of his 
statue in the Holy of Holies at Jerusalem. On the de- 
struction of Jerusalem by Titus, thousands of Jewish slaves 
were brought to Rome, and were employed on the building 
of the Coliseum. At the same time Vespasian, while 



1 66 WALKS IN- ROME. 

allowing the Hebrews in Rome the free exercise of their 
religion, obliged them to pay the tax of half a skekel, 
formerly paid into the Temple treasury, to Jupiter Capito- 
linus, — and this custom is still kept up in the annual tribute 
paid by the Jews in the Camera Capitolina. 

Under Domitian the Jews were banished from the city to 
the valley of Egeria, where they lived in a state of poverty 
and outlawry, which is described by Juvenal,* and occupied 
themselves with soothsaying, love-charms, magic-potions, 
and mysterious cures.t 

During the reigns of the earlier popes, the Jews at Rome 
enjoyed a great amount of liberty, and the anti-pope 
Anacletus II. (ob. 1 138) was even the grandson of a baptized 
Jew, whose family bore a leading part in Rome, as one of 
the great patrician houses. The clemency with which the 
Jews were regarded was, however, partly due to their skill 
as physicians, — and long after their persecutions had begun 
(as late as Martin V., 141 7 — 31), the physician of the 
Vatican was a Jew. The first really bitter enemy of the 
Jews was Eugenius IV. (Gabriele Conaolmiere, 1431 — 39), 
who forbade Christians to trade, to ^at, or to dwell with 
them, and prohibited them from walking in the streets, from 
building new synagogues, or from occupying any public 
post. Paul II. (1468) increased their humilia^on by com- 
pelling them to run races during the Carnival, as the horses 
run now, amidst the hoots of the populace. This custom 
continued for two hundred years. Sprenger's " Roma 
Nuova" of 1667, mentions that "the asses ran first, then 
the Jews — naked, with only a band round their loins — then 
the buffaloes, then the Barbary horses." It was Clement IX. 
(Rospigliosi), in 1668, who first permitted the Jews to pay 
a sum equivalent to 1500 francs annually instead of racing. 

" On the first Saturday in Carnival, it was the custom for the heads 
of the Jews in Rome to appear as a deputation before the Conservators 
in the Capitol. Throwing tlicmselves upon their knees, they offered a 
nosegay and twenty scudi with the request that this might be employed 
to ornament the balcony in which the Roman Senate sate in the Piazza 
del Popolo. In like manner they went to the senator, and, after the 
ancient custom, im]:)lored permission to remain in Rome. The senator 
placed his foot on their foreheads, ordered them to stand up, and replied 
in the accustomed formula, that Jews were not adopted in Rome, but 
allowe/l from compassion to remain there. This humiliation has now dis- 

• Sat. iii. t Sat, xvi. 



THE GHETTO. 167 

appeared, but the Jews still go to the Capitol, on the first Saturday of 
Carnival, to ofifer their homage and tribute for the pallii of the horses, 
which they have to provide, in memory that now the horses amuse the 
people in their stead." — Gregoroviiis, Wanderjahre. 

The Jews were first shut up within the walls of the Ghetto 
by the fanatical Dominican pope, Paul IV. (Gio. Pietro 
Caraffa, 1555 — 59), and commanded never to appear out- 
side it, unless the men were in yellow hats, or the women 
in yellow veils. " For," says the Bull Cum Nimis, 

"It is most absurd and unsuitable that the Jews, whose own crime 
has plunged them into everlasting slavery, under the plea that Christian 
magnanimity allows them, should presume to dwell and mix with 
Christians, not bearing any mark of distinction, and should have Chris- 
tian servants, yea, even buy houses." 

The Ghetto, or Vicus Judaeorum, as it was at first called, 
was shut in by walls which reached from the Ponte Quattro 
Capi to the Piazza del Pianto, or '' Place of Weeping," 
whose name bears witness to the grief of the people on 
the 26th July, 1556, when they were first forced into their 
prison-house. 

"Those Jews who were shut up in the Ghetto were placed in posses- 
sion of the dwellings of otaers. The houses in that quarter were the 
property of Romans, and some of them were inhabited by families of 
consideration, such as the Boccapaduli, When these removed they 
remained the proprietors and the Jews only tenants. But as they were 
to live for ever in these streets, it was necessary that the Jews should 
have a perpetual lease to defend them against a twofold danger, — 
negligence on the part of the owner to announce to his Jewish tenant 
when his possession expired, or bankruptcy if the owner raised his rent. 
Thus originated a law which established that the Romans should remain 
in possession of the dwellings let to the Jews, but that the latter should 
hold the houses in fee farm ; that is, the expiration of the contract cannot 
be announced to a Jewish tenant, and so long as he pays the lawful 
rent, the rent can never be raised ; the Jew- at the same time may alter 
or enlarge his house as he chooses. This still existing privilege is 
called the Jus Gazzaga. By virtue of it a Jew is in hereditary possession 
of the lease, and can sell it to his relations or others, and to the present 
clay it is a costly fortune to be in possession of a Jus Gazzaga, or a 
hereditary lease. Highly extolled is the Jewish maiden who brings her 
bridegroom such a dowry. Through this salutary law the Jew became 
possessed of a home, which to some extent he may call his own." — ■ 
Gregorovhis. 

The Jews were kindly treated by Sixtus V. on the plea 
that they were " the family from whom Christ came,'' and he 
allowed them to practise many kinds of trades, and to have 
intercoursj with Christians, and to build houses, libraries, 



iG8 WALKS IN ROME. 

and synagogues, but his mild laws were all repealed by 
Clement VIII. (Aldobrandini, 1592-1605), and under Cle- 
ment XI. and Innocent XIII. all trade was forbidden 
them, except that in old-clothes, rags, and iron, ''stracci 
feracci." To these Benedict XIV. (Lambertini) added 
trade in drapery, with which they are still largely occupied. 
Under Gregory X.III. (Buoncompagni, 1572-85) the Jews 
were forced to hear a sermon every week in the church, 
first of S. Benedetto alia Regola, then in S. Angelo in 
Peschiera, and every Sabbath police-agents were sent into 
the Ghetto to drive men, women, and children into the 
church with scourges, and to lash them while there if they 
appeared to be inattentive. This custom of compelHng 
Jews to listen to Christian sermons was renewed by Leo 
XII., and was only abolished in the early years of Pius IX. 
The walls of the Ghetto also remained, and its gates were 
closed at night until the reign of the present pope, who 
removed the limits of the Ghetto, and revoked all the 
oppressive laws against the Jews. The humane feeling 
with which he regarded this hitherto oppressed race is said 
to have been first evinced, — when, on the occasion of his 
placing a liberal alms in the hand of a beggar, one of his 
attendants interposed, saying, " It is a Jew ! " and the pope 
replied, '' What does that matter, it is a man ? " 

*' The present population of the Ghetto is estimated at 3800, a 
number out of all proportion, considering the small size of the Ghetto, 
which covers less sj^ace than the fiftli part of any small town of 3000 
inhabitants. The Jews are under the chief congregation of the Inquisi- 
tion, and their especial magistrate for all civil and criminal processes is 
the Cardinal Vicar. The tribunal which governs them consists of the 
Cardinal Vicar, the Prelato Vicegerente, the Prelato Luogo-tenente 
Civile, and the Criminal Lieulenanl. In police matters, the President 
of the Region of S. Angelo and Campitelli exercises the local police 
magistracy. The Jewish community has itself the right of regulating 
its internal order by the so-called Fattori del Ghetto, chosen every half- 
year. The common tribute of the Ghetto to the state, and to various 
religious bodies, amounts to about 13,000 francs." 

Opposite the gate of the Ghetto near the Ponte Quattro 
Capi a converted Jew erected a church, which is still to be 
seen, with a painting of the Crucifixion on its outside wall 
(upon which every Jew must look as he comes out of the 
Ghetto), and underneath an inscription in large letters of 
Hebrew and Latin from Isaiah, Ixv. 2 : — " All day long I 
have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying 



THE GHETTO. 169 

people." The lower streets of the Ghetto, especially the 
Fiumara, which is nearest to the banks of the Tiber, are 
annually overflowed during the spring rains and melting of 
the mountain snows, which is productive of great misery and 
distress. Yet in spite of this, and of the teeming population 
crowded into its narrow alleys, the mortality was less here 
during the cholera than in any other part of Rome, and 
malaria is unknown here, a freedom from disease which may 
perhaps be attributed to the Jewish custom of whitewashing 
their dwellings at every festival. There is no Jewish hospital, 
and if the Jews go to an ordinary hospital, they must submit 
to a crucifix being hung over their beds. It is remarkable 
that the very centre of the Jewish settlement should be the 
Portico of Octavia, in which Vespasian and Titus celebrated 
their triumph after the fall of Jerusalem. Here and 
there in the narrow alleys the seven-branched candlestick 
may be seen carved on the house walls, a "yet living 
symbol of the Jewish religion." 

Everything may be obtained in the Ghetto : precious 
stones, lace, furniture of all kinds, rich embroidery from 
Algiers and Constantinople, striped stuffs from Spain, — but 
all is concealed and under cover. " Cosa cercate," the 
Jew shopkeepers hiss at you as you thread their narrow 
alleys, and try to entice you into a bargain with them. The 
same article is often passed on by a mutual arrangement 
from shop to shop, and meets you wherever you go. On 
Friday evening all shops are shut, and bread is baked 
for the Sabbath, all merchandise is removed, and the men 
go to the synagogue, and wish each other " a good Sab- 
bath," on their return.* 

In the Piazza della Scuola are five schools under one 
roof — the Scuola del Tempio, Catilana, Castigliana, Sici- 
liana, and the Scuola Nuova, "which show that the 
Roman Ghetto is divided into five districts or parishes, 
each of which represents a particular race, according to the 
prevailing nationality of the Jews, whose fathers have been 
either Roman-Jewish from ancient times, or have been 
brought hither from Spain and Sicily ; the Temple-district 
is said above all others to assert its descent from the Jews 
of Titus. In the same piazza is the chief synagogue, 
riclily adorned with sculpture and gilding. On the external 

* See Dr. Philip's article on " The Jews in Rome." 



I TO WALKS AV ROME. 

frieze are represented in stucco the seven-branched candle- 
stick, David's harp, and Miriam's timbrel. The interior is 
highly picturesque and quaint, and is hung with curious 
tapestries on festas. The frieze which surrounds it repre- 
sents the temple of Solomon with all its sacred vessels. A 
round window in the north wall, divided into twelve panes 
of coloured glass, is symbolical of the twelve tribes of Israel, 
and a type of the Urim and Thummim. " To the west is 
the round choir, a wooden desk for singers and precentors. 
Opposite, in the eastern wall, is the Holy of Holies, with 
projecting staves (as if for the carr)dng of the ark) resting 
on Corinthian columns. It is covered by a curtain, on 
which texts and various devices of roses and tasteful ara- 
besques in the style of Solomon's temple are embroidered 
in gold. The seven-branched candlestick crowns the whole. 
In this Holy of Holies lies the sealed Pentateuch, a large 
parchment roll. This is borne in procession through the hall 
and exJiibited from the desk towards all the points of the 
compass, whereat the Jews raise their arms and utter a cry," 

*' On entering the Ghetto, we see Israel before its tents, in full rest- 
less labour and activity. The people sit in their (.loonvays, or outside 
in the streets, which receive hardly more light than the damp and 
gloomy chambers, and grub amid their old trumper}', or patch and sew 
diligently. It is inexpressible what a chaos of shreds and patches 
(called Cenci in Italian) is here accumulated. The whole world seems 
to be lying about in countless rags and scraps, as Jewish plunder. 
The fragments lie in heaps before the doors, they are of every kind and 
colour, — gold fringes, scraps of silk brocade, bits of velvet, red patches, 
blue patches, orange, yellow, black and white, torn, old, slashed and 
tattered pieces, large and small. I never saw such varied rubbish. 
The Jews might mend up all creation with it, and patch the whole 
world as gaily as harlequin's coat. There ihey sit and grub in their 
sea of rags, as though seeking for treasures, at least for a lost gold 
brocade. For they are as good antiquarians as any of those in Rome, 
who grovel amongst the ruins to bring to light the stump of a column, 
a fragment of a relief, an ancient inscription, a coin, or such matters. 
Each Hebrew Winckelmann in the Ghetto lays out his rags for sale 
with a certain pride, as does the dealer in marble fragments. Tlie latter 
boasts a piece of giallo-antico, the Jew can match it with an excellent 
fragment of yellow silk ; porphyry here is rci")resentcd by a piece of 
dark red damask, verde-antico by a handsome i-)atch of ancient greon 
velvet. And there is neither jasper nor alabaster, black marble, or 
white, or parti -colon red, which the (ihetto antiquarian is not able to 
match. The history of every fashion from Herod the Great to the 
invention of paletots, and of every mode of the highest as well as of the 
lower classes may be collected from these fragments, some of which are 
really historical, and may once have adorned the persons of Romulus, 



PALAZZO CENCI, 171 

Scipio Africanus, Hannibal, Cornelia, Augustus, Charlemagne, Pericles, 
Cleopatra, Barbarossa, Gregory VIL, Columbus, and so forth. 

" Here sit the daughters of Zion on these heaps and sew all that is 
capable of being sewn. Great is their boasted skill in all work of 
mending, darning,' and fine-drawing, and it is said that even the most 
formidable rent in any old drapery or garment whatsoever, becomes 
invisible under the hands of these Arachnes. It is chiefly in the 
Fiumara, the street lying lowest and nearest to the river, and in tlie 
street corners (one of which is called Argumille, i.e. of unleavened 
bread), that this business is carried on. I have often seen with a feeling 
of pain the pale, stooping, starving figures, laboriously plying the 
needle, — men as well as women, girls, and children. Misery stares 
forth from the tangled hair, and complains silently in the yellow-brown 
faces, and no beauty of feature recalls the countenance of Rachel, Leah, 
or Miriam, — only sometimes a glance from a deep -sunk, piercing black 
eye, that looks up from its needle and rags,' and seems to say— -'From 
the daughter of Zion, all her beauty is departed — she that was great 
among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she 
become tributary ! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are 
on her cheeks ; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her : all 
her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her 
enemies. Judah is gone into captivity, because of affliction, and because 
of great servitude ; she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no 
rest ; all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. How hath 
the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger ! " — 
Gregbroviiis, Wanderjahre. 

The narrow street which is a continuation of the Pes- 
cheria, emerges upon the small square called Piazza della 
Giudecca. In the houses on the left may be seen some 
columns and part of an architrave, being the only visible 
remains of the Theatre of Balbiis, erected by C. Cornelius 
Balbus, a general who triumphed in the time of Augustus, 
with the spoils taken from the Garamantes, a people of 
Africa, It was opened in the same year as the Theatre of 
Marcellus, and though very much smaller, was capable of 
containing as many as 11,600 spectators. 

To the right, still partly on the site of the ancient 
theatre, and extending along one side of the Piazza delle 
Scuole, is the vast Palazzo Ceftci, the ancient residence of 
the famous Cenci family (now represented by Count Cenci- 
Bolognetti), and the scene of many of the terrible crimes 
and tragedies which stain its annals. 

" The Cenci Palace is of great extent : and, though in part modern- 
ized, there yet remains a vast and gloomy pile of feudal architecture in 
the same state as during the dreadful scenes which it once witnessed. 
Fhe palace is situated in an obscure corner of Rom.e, near the quarter 
of the Jews, and from the upper windows you see the immense ruins of 

N 



172 WALKS IN ROME. 

Mount Palatine, half hidden under the profuse undergro\>th of trees. 
There is a court in one part of the palace supported by columns, and 
adorned with antique friezes of fine Avorkmanship, and built up, after 
the Italian fashion, with balcony over balcony of open work. One of 
the gates of the palace, formed of immense stones, and leading through 
a passage dark and lofty, and opening into gloomy subterranean 
chambers, struck me particularly." — Shelley's Preface to " The Ceiiciy 

Opposite the further entrance of the Palace, is the tiny 
Church of S. Tommaso dei Ce?id, founded 1113 by Cencio, 
bishop of Sabina; granted by JuHus II. to Rocco Cenci ; 
■ — and rebuilt in 1575 by the wicked Count Cenci. 

*' In 1585, Francesco Cenci was the head of the family, a man of 
passions so ungovernable and heart so depraved, that he hesitated at no 
species of crime. His first wife was a Princess Santa Croce, whom he 
is believed to have poisoned in order to marry the beautiful Lucrezia 
Petroni. His domestic cruelties to his children, especially to his three 
elder sons, Giacomo, Christoforo, and Rocco, were so terrible, that they 
petitioned the reigning Pope Clement VHI. to interfere in their behalf, 
but he abruptly dismissed them as rebels against the paternal authority ; 
one daughter, Marguerita, alone escaped from her miserable home, 
being given in marriage by the pope to a Signor Gabrielli. 

" The escape of this daughter made Francesco the more embittered 
against the remainder of his famdy. His youngest child, Beatrice, he 
immured in a solitary chamber, to which no one but himself was 
admitted, and where he constantly starved and beat her severely. 
When he received the news that his sons Christoforo and Rocco were 
assassinated in the neighbourhood of Rome by an unknown hand, he 
expressed the utmost joy, declaring that no money of his should pur- 
chase masses for the repose of their souls, and that he could have no 
peace until his wife and every child he had were in their graves. 

" Lucrezia, believing that the monster whom she had espoused was 
possessed, in spite of his cruelty, by a criminal passion for his own 
daughter, attempted secretly to save her, by presenting a memorial to 
the pope imploring him to give her in marriage to a Signor Guerra, 
who had long been attached to her. But this petition was intercepted 
by Francesco, who then carried off Lucrezia and his two youngest 
children, Beatrice and Bernardo, to Petrella, a vast and desolate castle 
in the Apennines. Guerra, and Giacomo the eldest remaining brother 
of Beatrice, hired a band of banditti in the Sabine hills who were to 
attack the party on the way, and to carry off Francesco for a ransom, 
liberating the women ; — but the rescue arrived. too late. 

" When they reached Petrella, Beatrice was incarcerated in a subter- 
ranean dungeon, where she was persuaded that her lover Guerra had 
been murdered, and was treated with such awful cruelty by her father, 
that, for a time, she was deprived of her reason. One day a servant, 
Marzio, whose betrotlied had previously been seduced and murdered by 
Francesco, roused by the shrieks of Bv:atrice, burst into the room, and 
rushing upon his master dealt a terrible tiirust with a dagger on his 
neck, exclaiming, .' I murder thee, assas^i.i of thy own blood.' But 
Cenci arose uninjured, to the horror of Mar.rio, who imagined that only 



STORY OF THE CENCI. 173 

a demon could avert such a blow, and who was ignorant that he wore 
under his vestments, even in bed, a coat of mail which covered his entire 
body. 

" At length Beatrice contrived to communicate with her brother Gia- 
Como, who united with Guerra in hiring the services of Marzio and 
of Olympio, another servant, who was inspired with an equal thirst for 
vengeance upon Count Cenci. All felt that the death of Francesco 
was the only hope for his unhappy family. The assassins com- 
municated with Lucrezia, who administered an opiate to her husband, 
and then stole from him some keys which enabled her after mid- 
night to liberate Bernardo and Beatrice. The latter she found in a 
state of stupefaction, and vainly endeavoured to rouse her, signifying 
that the moment of escape had arrived. Beatrice showed no symptom 
of surprise at the announcement, or at the visit of her stepmother at 
that strange hour ; she asked not how they had opened her door, or 
how her liberty had been acquired. When they were all assembled in 
the hall, Lucrezia told them the project, and asked their aid. Bernardo 
at first hesitated, but Lucrezia roused him by every argument she could 
urge and obtained his consent. Beatrice made no reply. 

" . . . . Francesco Cenci was murdered in his sleep. Marzio 
placed a large nail or iron bolt on his right eye, which Olympio, with 
one blow of a hammer, drove straight into the brain. The deed thus 
accomplished, Marzio and Olympio wrapped the dead body in a sheet, 
and carried it to a small pavilion built at the end of a terrace-walk, 
overlooking an orchard. From this height they cast it down on an old 
gnarled elder-tree, in order that when the body should be found the 
next morning, it might appear that whilst walking on the terrace, the 
foot of the count had slipped, and that he had fallen head-foremost on 
one of the stunted branches of the tree, which, piercing through his eye 
to the brain, had caused his death. Returning to the hall, they received 
from Lucrezia a purse of gold ; Marzio, carrying with him a valuable 
cloak trimmed with gold lace, turned towards Beatrice (who still 
stood leaning against the table), and saying, ' I shall keep this as a 
memorial of you,' departed with Olympio. The report of Francesco's 
death was not spread through the castle until the next morning. Lu- 
crezia then rushed through the house uttering cries. In a day or two 
the funeral took place, and immediately after the family returned to 
Rome. Giacomo took possession of the Cenci palace, and Beatrice daily 
improved in health of body and mind. 

" Soon, however, the suspicious circumstances of Count Cenci's death 
excited attention ; the body was exhumed and examined, and the in- 
habitants of Petrella placed under arrest, when a washerwoman deposed 
to having received bloody sheets from one of the inhabitants of the 
castle^she thought from Beatrice — the day after the murder. On 
hearing this, the fear that he would turn against them, induced Signor 
Guerra to hire assassins to pursue Olympio, whom they despatched at 
Terni ; but Marzio was arrested, and confessed the circumstances of the 
murder, though when confronted with Beatrice, he proclaimed her inno- 
cence of it, and declared her incapable of crime. 

" Guerra made good his escape, but the whole Cenci family were 
thrown into prison and put to the torture Giacomo, Bernardo, and 
Lucrezia, unable to endure the sufferings of the racflv, confessed at once. 



174 WALKS IN ROME. 

" Such, however, was not the case with the young and beautiful 
Beatrice. Full of spirit and courage, neither the persuasions nor threats 
of jNIoscati the judge could extort from her the smallest confession. She 
endured the torture of the cord with all the firmness which the purity of 
lier heart inspired. The judge failed to extort from her lips a single 
word which could throw a shade over her innocence, and at length, 
believing it useless to pursue the torture further, he suspended the pro- 
ceedings, and reported them to the pope. But Clement VIII. suspecting 
that the unwillingness of Moscati to believe Beatrice guilty was induced 
by her extreme beauty, only replied by consigning the prosecution to 
another judge, and Beatrice was left in the hands of Luciani, 'a man 
whose heart was a stranger to every feeling of humanity.' Upon her 
renewed protestations of innocence, he ordered the torture of the 
Vigilia. 

"The torture of the Vigilia was as follows: — Upon a high joint- 
stool, the seat about a span large, and instead of being flat, cut in the 
form of pointed diamonds, the victim was seated : the legs were fastened 
together and without support ; the hands bound behind the back, and 
with a running knot attached to a cord descending from the ceiling : the 
body was loosely attached to the back of the chair, cut also into angular 
points. A wretch stood near, pushing the victim from side to side, and 
now and then, by pulling the rope from the ceiling, gave the arms most 
painful jerks. In this horrible position the sufferer remained fo7-ty hotiy'S, 
the assistants being changed every fifth hour.. At the expiration of this 
time, Beatrice was carried into the prison more dead than alive. The 
judge was annoyed at the account he received of the fortitude of 
Beatrice, and, in a rage, he exclaimed, ' Never shall it be said that a 
weak girl can escape from my hands, while not one of those condemned 
have been able to resist my power ! ' 

"On the third day the examination was renewed, and Beatrice was 
condemned to the tortura capilloiiim. ' At a given signal, the satel- 
lites of the tribunal carried Beatrice under a rope suspended from the 
ceiling, and twisting into a cord her long and beautiful hair, they 
attached it, with diabolical art, to the rope, so that the whole body 
could by this means be raised from the ground. The frightful prepara- 
tions over, and her protestations of innocence again disregarded, she was 
elevated from the ground by the hair of her head ; at the same time was 
added another torture, consisting of a mesh of small cords twined about 
the fingers, twisting them nearly out of joint and dragging the hand 
almost from the bone of the arm. The wretched girl screamed with 
agony, while the judge stood by, commanding the suspended rope to be 
tightened, and raising the body by the hair from the ground gave it a 
sudden jerk, exhorting her to confess. She cried out in a convulsion 
for water, rolling her eyes in agony, and exclaiming, ' I am innocent.' 
The torture being repeated with still greater cruelty, and the fortitude 
of the young girl remaining unshaken, the judge, believing it impossible 
that a young female could resist such torments, concluded, with the 
superstition of the times, that she carried about with her some witch- 
craft : he ordered her to be examinetl, and finding no cause of suspicion, 
was about to have her hair cut off, when it was suggested the torment of 
the tortura capillorutn could not then be renewed ; her hair was again 
fastened to the rope, and for a whole hour she was subjected to such a 



STORY OF THE CENCI. 175 

succession of cruelties as tlie heart shrinks from narrating : but not a 
word escaped from her lips, that could compromise her innocence. 

** In the mean time Lucrezia, Giacomo, and Bernardo were taken into 
the hall Erculeo, and in their presence a repetition of the torture was 
oidered, to so awful an extent, that she fainted and 'lay senseless. A 
new cruelty was devised, the taxilla, h.er feet M'ere bared, and to the 
soles was applied a block of heated wood, prepared in such a way as to 
retain the scorching heat ; then did the unhappy girl utter piercing 
shrieks, and remained some minutes apparently dead. These accumu- 
lated tortures were repeated, untd her relations, who were handcuffed 
lest they should render her any assistance, began to implore her with 
heart-rending tears and entreaties to yield. To this the judge mingled 
threats and the application of further torments, and enforced them with 
such rigour, that the victim shrieked in agony, and exclaimed, ' Oh ! 
cease this martyrdom, and I will confess anything.' 

'*The tortures were at once suspended and restoratives applied, 
while her family on their knees implored Beatrice to adhere to her 
promise, urging that the unnatural cruelties of her father would be a 
just defence for the crime imputed to her, and that by agreeing to their 
deposition, she might give them a hope of common liberation. The 
unhappy girl replied, ' Be it as you wish. I am content to die if I can 
preserve you' — and to each interrogatory of the judge she replied, ^ E 
vera,'' until asked whether she did not urge the assassins to kill her father, 
and, on their refusal, propose to commit the crime herself, when she 
involuntarily exclaimed, ' Imijjossible, impossible ! a tiger could not do 
it ; how much less a daughter ! ' Threatened anew with the torture, 
she answered not, but, raising her eyes to Heaven, and moving her lips 
in prayer, she said, ' Oh my God, Thou knowest if this be true ! ' Thus 
did the judge force from Beatrice an assent to a deed at which her very 
nature revolted. 

" Luciani hastened to the pope with the news that Beatrice had con- 
fessed. Clement VIII. was seized with one of those fits of anger to 
which he was subject, and exclaimed — 'Let them all be immediately 
bound to the tails of wild horses, and dragged through the streets until 
life is extinct.' The horror evinced by all classes at this sentence 
induced him to grant a respite of twenty -five days, at the end of which 
a trial took place, and the advocate Farinacci boldly pleaded the 
defence of the prisoners. But while their fate was hanging in the 
balance, the Marchesa Santa-Croce was murdered by her own son, 
which caused Clement to order the immediate execution of the whole 
Cenci family, and the entreaties of their friends only induced him to 
spare the life of Bernardo, with the horrible proviso that he was to 
remain upon the scaffold and witness the execution of his relations. 

" . . . . During the fearful and protracted transit to the scaffold, 
it was the custom of the satellites of the inquisition, at regular intervals, 
to tear from the body pieces of flesh with heated pincers, but in 
this instance the pope dispensed with this torture, but ordered that 
Giacomo should be beaten to death and then quartered. As the pro- 
cession passed the piazza of the Palazzo Cenci, Giacomo, who had 
appeared resigned, became dreadfully agitated, and uttered heart-rending 
cries of, ' My children ! my children ! ' The people shouted, ' Dogs, 
give him his children ! ' The procession was proceeding, when the 



176 WALKS IN ROME, 

multitude assumed such a threatening aspect, that t\vo of the Com* 
pagnia dei Confortati thought themselves authorised to pause, the 
unhappy man imploring them in accents of despair, lo suffer him once 
more to behold his children. The crowd became pacified on seeing 
Giacomo descend from the cart and conducted to the vestibule of his 
palace, where they brought to him his children and his wife. The 
latter fainted on the last step. 

"The scene that followed was the most affecting and painful that the 
imagination can picture. His three children clung around his legs, 
uttering cries that rent the hearts of all present. The unhappy man 
embraced them, telling them that in Bernardo they would find a father ; 
then, fixing his eyes on his unconscious wife, he said, ' Let us go ! ' 
Reascending the cart, the procession stopped before the prison of the 
Corte Savella. 

"Here Beatrice and Lucrezia appeared before the gates, conducted 
by the Confortati. They knelt down and prayed for some time before 
the crucifix, and then walked on foot behind the carriage. Lucrezia 
wore a robe of black, and a long black veil covered her head and 
shoulders ; Beatrice in a dark robe and veil, a handkerchief of cloth of 
silver on her head, and slippers of white velvet, ornamented with 
crimson sandals and rosettes, followed. . . . Twice during the 
passage, an attempt was made to rescue Beatrice, but each failed, and 
she reached the chapel, where all the condemned were to receive the 
blessing of the Sacrament before execution. 

" The first brought out to ascend the scaffold was Bernardo, who, 
according to the conditions of his reprieve, was to witness the death of 
his relatives. The poor boy, before he had reached the summit, fell 
down in a swoon, and was obliged to be supported to his seat of torture. 
Preceded by the standard and the brethren of the Misericordia, the 
executioner next entered the chapel to convey Lucrezia. Binding her 
hands behind her back, and removing the veil that covered her head 
and shoulders, he led her to the foot of the scaffold. Here she stopped, 
prayed devoutly, kissed the crucifix, and taking oflf her shoes, mounted 
the ladder barefoot. From confusion and terror, she with difficulty 
ascended, crying out, ' Oh, my God ! oh, holy brethren, pray for my 
soul, oh, God, pardon me ! ' The principal executioner beckoned to 
her to place herself on the block ; the unhappy woman, from her 
unwieldy figure, being unable to do so, some violence was used, the 
executioner raised his axe, and with one stroke severed the head from 
the body ! Catching it by the hair, he exposed it, still quivering, to 
the gaze of the populace ; then wrapping it in the veil, he laid it on a 
bier in the corner of the scaffold, the body falling into a coffin placed 
underneath. The violence used towards the sufferer had so excited the 
multitude, that a universal uproar commenced. Forty young men 
rushed forward to the chapel to rescue Beatrice, but were again 
defeated, after a short struggle. . . . 

*' Meanwhile Beatrice, kneeling in the chapel absorbed in prayer, 
heeded not the uproar that surrounded her. She rose, as the standard 
appeared to precede her to the block, and with eagerness demanded, 'Is 
my mother then really dead?' — Answered in the affirmative, she prayed 
with fervour ; then raising her voice, she said, ' Lord, thou hast called 
mc, and I obey the summons willingly, as I hope for mercy ! ' Ap« 



STORY OF THE CENCI. 177 

preaching her brother, she bade him farewell, and with a smile of love, 
said, ' Grieve not for me. We shall be happy in heaven, I have 
forgiven thee.' Giacomo fainted ; his sister, turning round, said, ' Let 
us proceed ! ' The executioner appeared with a cord, but seemed 
afraid to fasten it round her body. She saw this, and with a sad smile 
said, ' Bind this body ; but hasten to release the soul, which pants for 
immortality ! ' 

"Scarcely had the victim arrived at the foot of the scaffold, when the 
square, filled with that vast multitude before so uproarious, suddenly 
assumed the silence of a desert. Each one bent forward to hear her 
speak ; with every eye riveted on her, and lips apart, it seemed as if 
their very existence depended on any words she might utter. Beatrice 
ascended the stairs with a slow but firm step. In a moment she placed 
herself on the block, which had caused so much fear to Lucrezia. She 
did not allow the executioner to remove the veil, but laid it herself upon 
the table. In this dreadful situation she remained a few minutes, a 
universal cry of horror staying the arm of the executioner. But soon 
the head of his victim was held up separated from the trunk, which was 
violently agitated for a few seconds. The miserable Bernardo Cenci, 
forced to witness the fate of his sister, again swooned away ; nor could 
he be restored to his senses for more than half an hour. 

" Meanwhile the scaffold was made ready for the dreadful punishment 
destined for Giacomo. Having performed some religious ceremonies, 
he appeared dressed in a cloak and cap. Turning towards the people, 
he said in a clear voice, * Although in the agonies of torture I accused 
my sister and brother of sharing in the crime for which I suffer, I 
accused them falsely. Now that I arn about to render an account of 
my actions to God, I solemnly assert their entire innocence. Farewell, 
my friends. Oh, pray to God for me.' 

"Saying these words, he knelt down; the executioner bound his 
legs to the block and bandaged his eyes. To particularise the details 
of this execution would be too dreadful ; suffice it to say, he was beaten, 
beheaded, and quartered in the sight of that vast multitude, and 
by the side of a brother, who was sprinkled with his blood. All was 
now over. 

" Near the statue of St. Paul, according to custom, 

were placed three biers, each with four lighted torches. In these were 
laid the bodies of the victims. A crown of flowers had been placed 
around the head of Beatrice, who seemed as though in sleep, so calm, 
so peaceful was that placid face, while a smile such as she wore in life 
still hovered on her lips. Many a tear was shed over that bier, many a 
flower was scattered around her, whose fate all mourned— whose inno- 
cence none questioned. 

" On that night the bodies were interred. The corpse of Beatrice, 
clad in the dress she wore on the scaffold, was borne, covered with 
garlands of flowers, to the church of San Pietro in Montorio ; and 
buried at the foot of the high altar, before Raffaelle's celebrated picture 
of the Transfiguration." * 

* This account is much abridged from the interesting translation in Whiteside's 
"Italy in the Nineteenth Century," from "Beatrice Cenci Rontana, Storia del 
Secolo xvi. Raccontata dal D. A A. Firenze," 



178 WALKS IN ROME. 

Retracing our steps to the Piazza della Giudecca and 
turning left down a narrow alley, which is always busy with 
Jewish traffic, we reach the F'lazza delle Tartarughe, so 
called from the tortoises which form part of the adornments 
of its lovely little fountain, — designed by Giacomo della 
Porta, the four figures of boys being by Taddeo Landini. 

At this point we leave the Ghetto. 



Forming one side of the Piazza delle Tartarughe the 
Palazzo Costaguti, celebrated for its six splendid ceilings 
by great artists, viz : — 

1. Albajii : Hercules wounding the Centaur Nessus. 

2. Domenichino : Apollo in his car, Time discovering truth, &c., 

much injured. 

3. Giiercino : Rinaldo and Armida in a chariot drawn by 

dragons, 

4. Cav. (T Arpino : Juno nursing Hercules, Venus and Cupids. 

5. Lanfranco : Justice and Peace. 

6. Ro77ianelli : Arion saved by the dolphin. 

In a corner of the piazza is a well-known Lace-Shop, much 
frequented by English ladies, but great powers of bargaining 
are called for. Almost immediately behind this is one of 
the most picturesque mediaeval courtyards in the city. 

On the same line, at the end of the street, is the Palazzo 
Mattel, built by Carlo Mademo (161 5) for Duke Asdrubal 
Mattei, on the site of the Circus of Flaminius. The small 
courtyard of this palace is well worth examining, and is one 
of the handsomest in Rome, being quite encrusted, as well 
as the staircase, with ancient bas-reliefs, busts, and other 
sculptures. It contained a gallery of pictures, the greater 
part of which have been dispersed. The rooms have fres- 
coes by Pomeranclo, Lanfra7ico, Pletro da Cortona, Dome- 
7nchino, and Albarii. 

Behind this, facing the Via delle Botteghe Oscure, is the 
vast Palazzo Ca'etanl, now inhabited by the learned Don 
Michel-Angelo Caetani (Duke of Sermoneti and Prince of 
Teano), whose family is one of the most distinguished in 
the mediaeval history of Rome, and which gave Boniface VIII. 
to the church : 

" Lo principe de' nuovi fiirisei." 

Dante^ Inferno^ xxvii. 



S. MARIA IN CAMPITELLI 179 

It claims descent from Anatolius, created Count of 
Gaieta by Pope Gregory II. in 730. 

Close to the Palazzo Mattei is the Chiwch of Sta. Cate- 
rina de' Funari, built by Giacomo della Porta, in 1563, ad- 
joining a convent of Augustinian nuns. The streets in this 
quarter are interesting as bearing witness in their names to 
the existence of the Circus Flaminius, the especial circus 
of the plebs, which once occupied all the ground near this. 
The Via delk Botteghe , Oscnre, commemorates the dark 
shops which in mediaeval times occupied the lower part of 
the circus, as they do now that of the Theatre of Mar- 
cellus. The Via dei Funari, the ropemakers who took ad- 
vantage for their work of the light and open space which 
the interior of the deserted circus afforded. The remains of 
the circus existed to the sixteenth century. 

Near this, turning right, is the Piazza di Campitelli^ 
which contains the Church of S. Maria in Campitelli^ 
built by Rinaldi for Alexander VII. in 1659, upon the site 
of an oratory erected by Sta. Galla in the time of John I. 
(523-6), in honour of an image of the Virgin, which one day 
miraculously appeared imploring her charity, in company 
with the twelve poor women to whom she was daily in the 
habit of giving alms. The oratory of Sta. Galla was called 
Sta. Maria in Portico, from the neighbouring pordco of 
Octavia, a name which is sometimes applied to the present 
church. The miraculous mendicant image is now enshrined 
in gold and lapis-lazuli over the high altar. Other relics 
supposed to be preserved here are the bodies of Sta. Cyrica, 
Sta. Victoria, and Sta. Vincenza, and half that of Sta. Barbara ! 
The second chapel on the right has a picture of the Descent 
of the Holy Ghost by Liua Giorda7io ; in the first chapel on 
the left is the tomb of Prince Altieri, inscribed " Umbra," 
and that of his wife, Donna Laura di Carpegna, inscribed 
*' Nihil ; " they rest on Uons of rosso-antico. In the right 
transept is the tomb by Fettrich of Cardinal Pacca, who 
lived in the Palazzo Pacca, on the opposite side of the 
square, and was the faithful friend of Pius VII. in his exile. 
The bas-relief on the tomb, of St. Peter delivered by the 
angel, is in allusion to the deliverance from the French 
captivity. 

The' name CampiteUi is probably derived from Campus- 
teli, because in this neighbourhood (see Ch. XIV.) was the 



i8o WALKS IN ROME. 

Columna Bellica, from which when war was declared a dart 
was thrown into a plot of ground, representing the hostile 
territory, — perhaps the very site of this church. 

In the street behind this, leading into the Via di Ara 
Coeli, are the remains of the ancient Palazzo Margana, with 
a very richly-sculptured gateway o{ c. 1350, 

Opening from hence upon the left is the Via Tor d^ 
Specchi, whose name commemorates the legend of Virgil as 
a necromancer^ and of his magic tower lined with mirrors, 
in which all the secrets of the city were reflected and 
brought to light. 

Here is the famous Convent of the Tor de' Specchi, 
founded by Sta. Francesca Romana, and open to the 
public during the octave of the anniversary of her death 
(following the 9th of March). At this time the pavements 
are strewn with box, the halls and galleries are bright with 
fresh flowers, and Swiss guards are posted at the different 
turnings, to facilitate the circulation of visitors. It is a 
beautiful specimen of a Roman convent. The first hall is 
painted with ancient frescoes, representing scenes in the 
life of the saint Here, on a table, is the large bowl in 
which Sta. Francesca prepared ointment for the poor. 
Other relics are her veil, shoes, &c. Passing a number of 
open cloisters, cheerful with flowers and ' orange-trees, we 
reach the chapel, where sermons or rather lectures are de- 
livered at the anniversary upon the story of Sta. Francesca's 
life, and where her embalmed body may be seen beneath 
the altar. The picturesque dress of the Oblate sisters who 
are everywhere visible, adds to the interest of the scene. 

"It is no gloomy abode, the Convent of the Tor di Specchi, even in the 
eyes of those who cannot understand the happiness of a nun. It is such 
a place as one loves to see children in ; where religion is combined with 
everything that pleases the eye and recreates the mind. The beautiful 
chapel ; the garden with its magnificent orange-trees; the open galleries, 
with their fanciful decorations and scenic recesses, where a holy picture 
or figure takes you by surprise, and meets you at every turn ; the light 
airy rooms, where religious prints and ornaments, with flowers, birds, 
and ingenious toys, testify that innocent enjoyments are encouraged and 
smiled upon ; while from every window may l)e caught a glimpse of the 
Eternal City, a spire, a ruined wall, — something that speaks of Rome 
and its thousand charms. 

"It was on the 21st of March, the festival of St Benedict, that 
Francesca liersclf entered the convent, not as the foundress, but as a 
humble suppliant for admission. At the foot of the stairs, having taken 
off her customary black gown, her veil, and her shoes, and placed a 



CONVENT OF THE TOR DK SPECCIII. i8i 

cord around her neck, she knelt down, kissed the ground, and shedding 
an abundance of tears, made her general confession aloud in the presjnce 
of all the Oblates ; she described herself as a miserable sinner, a grievous 
offender against God, and asked permission to dwell amongst them as 
the meanest of their servants ; and to learn from them to amend her 
life, and enter upon a holier course. The spiritual daughters of Fran- 
cesca hastened to raise and embrace her ; and clothing her with their 
habit, they led the way to the chapel, where they all returned thanks to 
God. While she remained there in prayer, Agnese de Lellis, the 
superioress, assembled the sisters in the chapter-room, and declaimed to 
them, that now their true mother and foundress had come amongst 
them, it would be absurd for her to remain in her present office ; that 
Francesca was their guide, their head, and that into her hands she 
should instantly resign her authority. They all applauded her decision, 
and gathering around the Saint, announced to her their wishes. As was 
to be expected, Francesca strenuously refused to accede to this pro- 
posal, and pleaded her inability for the duties of a superioress. The 
Oblates had recourse to Don Giovanni, the confessor of Francesca, who 
began by entreating, and finally commanded her acceptance of the 
charge. His order she never resisted ; and accordingly, on the 25th of 
March, she was duly elected to that ofifice." — Lady Georgina FullertofH s 
Life of Sta. Francesca Komaiia 

" Sta. Francesca Romana is represented in the dress of a Benedictine 
nun, a black robe and a white hood or veil ; and her proper attribute is 
an angel, who holds in his hand the book of the Office of the Virgin, 
open at the words, ' Tenuisti nianum dexteram meanly et hi voluntate 
tua deduxisti me, et cniii gloria siiscepisti me'' (Ps. Ixxiii. 23, 24) ; 
which attribute is derived from an incident thus narrated in the acts of 
her canonisation. Tliough unwearied in her devotions, yet if, during 
her prayers, she was called away by her husband on any domestic duty, 
she would close her book, saying that ' a wife and a mother, wht.-n called 
upon, must quit her God at the altar, and find him in her household 
affairs.' Now it happened once, that, in reciting the Office of Our Lady, 
she was called away four times just as she was beginning the same verse, 
and, returning the fifth time, she found that verse written upon the page 
in letters of golden light by the hand of her guardian angel." — Jameson^ s 
Sacred Art, p. 151. 

Almost opposite the convent is the Via del Monte Tar- 
peio, a narrow alley, leading up to the foot of the Tarpeian 
rock, beneath the Palazzo Caffarelli, and one of the points 
at which the rock is best seen. This spot is believed to 
have been the site of the house of Spurius Maslius, who 
tried to ingratiate himself with the people, by buying up 
corn and distributing it in a year of scarcity (b.c. 440), but 
who was in consequence put to death by the patricians. 
His house was razed to the ground, and its site, being 
always kept vacant, went by the name of ^quimaelium.* 

Livy, iv. 16 ; xxxviii. 28. 



i83 WALKS IN ROME. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE PALATINE. 

The Story of the Hill — Orti Famesiani — The Via Nova — Roma 
Quadrata — The Houses of the early Kings — Temple of Jupiter 
Stator — Palace of Augustus — Palace of Vespasian — Crypto-Porticus 
— Temple of Jupiter- Victor — The Lupercal and the Hut of Faus- 
tulus — Palace of Tiberius — Palace of Caligula — Clivus Victorias — 
Ruins of the Kingly Period — Altar of the Genius Loci — House of 
Hortensius — Septizonium of Severus. 

" " I ^HE Palatine formed a trapezium of solid rock, two 

-L sides of which were about 300 yards in length, the 
others about 400 : the area of its summit, to compare it with 
a familiar object, was nearly equal to the space between 
Pali-Mall and Piccadilly in London." * 

The history of the Palatine is the history of the City of 
Rome. Here was the Roma Quadrata, the " oppidum," or 
fortress of the Pelasgi, of which the only remaining trace is 
the name Roma, signifying force. This is the fortress where 
the shepherd-king Evander is represented by Virgil as wel- 
coming v^neas. 

The Pelasgic fortress was enclosed by Romulus within the 
limits of this new city, which, " after the Etruscan fashion, he 
traced round the foot of the hill with a plough drawn by a 
bull and a heifer, the furrow being carefully made to fall 
inwards, and the heifer yoked to the near-side, to signify that 
strength and courage were required without, obedience and 
fertility within the city. . . . The locality thus enclosed was 
reserved for the temples of the gods and the residence of the 
ruling class, the class of patricians or burghers, as Niebuhr 
has taught us to entitle them, which predominated over the 
dependent commons, and only suffered them to crouch for 
security under the walls of Romulus. The Palatine was 
never occupied by the plebs. In the last age of the republic, 
long after the removal of this partition, or of the civil dis- 
tinction between the great classes of the state, here was still 
the chosen site of the mansions of the highest nobility. "f 

In the time of the early kings the City of Rome was 

• Merivale, Hist, of Romans under the Empire, chap. xL 
t Menvale, chap. xL 



THE PALATINE THE ORIGINAL ROME. 183 

represented by the Palatine only. It was at first divided 
into two parts, one inhabited, and the other called Velia, 
and left for the grazing of cattle. It had two gates, the 
Porta Romana to the north, and the Porta Mugonia — so 
called from the lowing of the cattle — to the south, on the 
side of the Velia. 

Augustus was born on the Palatine, and dwelt there in 
common with other patrician citizens in his youth. After he 
became emperor he still lived there, but simply, and in the 
house of Hortensius, till, on its destruction by fire, the people 
of Rome insisted upon building him a palace more worthy 
of their ruler. This l3uilding was the foundation-stone of " the 
Palace of the Caesars," which in time overran the whole hill, 
and, under Nero, two of the neighbounng hills besides, and 
whose ruins are daily being disinterred and recognised, 
though much confusion still remains regarding their respective 
sites. In a.d. 663, part of the palace remained sufficiently 
perfect to be inhabited by the Emperor Constans, and its 
plan is believed to have been entire for a century after, but 
it never really recovered its sack by Genseric in a.d. 455, in 
which it was completely gutted, even of the commonest fur- 
niture ; and as years passed on it became imbedded in the 
soil which has so marvellously enshrouded all the ancient 
buildings of Rome, so that till within the last ten years, only 
a few broken nameless walls were visible above ground. 

" Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower grown 
Matted and mass'd together, hillocks heap'd 
On what were chambers, arch crush'd, columns strown 
In fragments, choked-up vaidts, and frescoes steep'd 
In subterranean damps, where the owl peep'd. 
Deeming it midnight : — Temples, baths, or halls ? 
Pronounce who can ; for all that Learning reap'd 
From her research has been,\jthat these are walls. — 
Behold the Imperial Mount ! 'Tis thus the mighty falls." 

Byron, Childe Harold. 

How different is this description to that of Claudian (de 
Sexto Consulat. Honorii). 

" The Palatine, pruod Rome's imperial seat, 
(An awful pile) stands venerably great : 
Thither the kingdoms and the nations come, 
In supplicating crowds to learn their doom: 
To Delphi less th' inquiring worlds repair, 
Nor does a greater god inhabii there : 



l84 WALKS IN ROME. 

This sure the pompous mansion was design'd 
To please the mighty rulers of mankind ; 
Inferior temples rise on either hand, 
And on the borders of the palace stand, 
While o'er the rest her head she proudly rears, 
And lodged amidst her guardian gods appears." 

Addisoiis Translation. 

After the middle of the sixteenth century a great part of 
the Palatine became the property of the Farnese family, 
latterly represented by the Neapolitan Bourbons, who sold 
the " Orti Farnesiani," in 1861, to the Emperor Napoleon 
III., for ^10,000. Up to that time this part of the Palatine 
was a vast kitchen-garden, broken here and there by pic- 
turesque groups of ilex trees and fragments of mouldering 
wall. In one corner was a casino of the Farnese (still stand- 
ing) adorned in fresco by some of the pupils of Raphael. 
This and all the later buildings in the " Orti," are marked 
with the YdiVnQ^Q fleur-de-lis, and on the principal staircase of 
the garden is some really grand distemper ornament of their 
time. Since 1861 extensive excavations have been carried 
on here under the superintendence of Signor Rosa, which 
have resulted in the discovery of the palaces of some of the 
earlier emperors, and the substructions of several temples. 

In visiting the Palace of the Caesars, it will naturally be 
asked how it is known that the different buildings are what 
they are described to be. In a great measure this has been 
ascertained from the descriptions of Tacitus and other histo- 
rians, — but the greatest assistance of all has been obtained 
from the Tristia of Ovid, who, while in exile, consoles him- 
self by recalling the different buildings of his native city, 
which he mentions in describing the route taken by his book, 
which he had persuaded a friend to convey to the imperial 
library. He supposes the book to enter the Palatine by the 
Clivus Victoriae behind the Temple of Vesta, and follows its 
course, remarking the different objects it passed on the right 
or the left. 

If we enter the palace by the Farnese gateway, on the right 
of the Campo-Vaccino, opposite SS. Cosmo e Damiano, we 
had better only ascend the first division of the staircase and 
then turn to the left. Passing along the lower ridge of the 
Palatine, afterwards occupied by many of the great patrician 
houses, whose sites we shall return to and examine in detail, 



^"lA NOVA.— ?I0 USE OF OCTAVIUS. 185 

we Teach that corner of the garden which is nearest to the 
Arch of Titus. Here a paved road of large blocks of lava 
has lately been laid bare, and is identified beyond a doubt 
as part of the Via Nova, which led from the Porta Mugonia 
of the Palatine along the base of the hill to the Velabrum. 
In the reign of Augustus it appears to have been made to 
communicate also with the Forum. 

"Qua Nova Romano nunc Via juncta Foro est." 

Ovid^ Fast. vi. 396. 

At this point the road was called Summa Via Nova. 

Near this spot must have been the site of the house where 
Octavius lived with his wife Afra, the niece of Julius Caesar 
(daughter of his eldest sister Julia), and where their son, 
Octavius, afterwards the Emperor Augustus, was born. This 
house afterwards passed into the possession of C. Lsetorius, a 
patrician ; but after the death of Augustus, part of it was 
turned into a chapel, and consecrated to him. It w^as situated 
at the top of a staircase — " supra scalas annularias"* — which 
probably led to the Forum, and is spoken of as " ad capita 
bubula," perhaps from bulls' heads, Avith which it may have 
been decorated. 

Here we find ourselves, owing to the excavations, in a 
deep hollow between the two divisions of the hill. On the 
left is the Velia, upon which, near the Porta Mugonia, the 
Sabine king, Ancus Martins, had his palace. When Ancus 
died, he was succeeded by an Etruscan stranger, Lucius 
Tarquinius, who took the name of Tarquinius Priscus. This 
king also lived upon the Velia,t with Tanaquil his queen, and 
here he was murdered in a popular rising, caused by the sons 
of his predecessor. Here his brave wife Tanaquil closed 
the doors, concealed the death of the king, harangued the 
people from the windows,^ and so gained time till Servius 
Tullius was prepared to take the dead king's place and 
avenge his murder. § 

Keeping to the valley, on our right are now some huge 
blocks of tufa, of great interest as part of the ancient Roma 
Quadrata, anterior to Romulus. Beyond this, also on the 
right, are foundations of the Temple of yupiter Stator, built 

* Sueton. Aug. 72. t Livy, i. 41. X Livy, i. 41. 

§ The palace of Numa was close to the Temple of Vesta ; that of Tullus Hostilius 
was on the Ccelian ; those of Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus on the Esquiliue. 



1 86 WALKS IN ROME. 

by Romulus, who vowed that he would found a temple to 
Jupiter under that name, if he would arrest the flight of his 
Roman followers in their conflict with the superior forces of 
the Sabines.* 

" Inde petens dextram, porta est, ait, isfa Palati ; 
Hie Stator, hoc primiim condita Roma loco est." 

Ovid, Trist. iii. El. I. 

** Tempus idem Stator aedis habet, quam Romuhis olim 
Ante Palatini condidit ora jugi." 

Ovid, East. vi. 793. 

The temple of Jupiter wStator has an especial interest from 
its connection with the story of Cicero and Catiline, 

"Ciceron rassembla le senat dans le temple de Jupiter Stator. Le 
choix du lieu s'explique facilement ; ce temple etait pres de la principale 
entree du Palatin sur le Velia, dominant, en cas d'emeute, le Forum, 
que Ciceron et les principaux senateurs habitants du Palatin n'avaient 
pas a traverser comme s'il eilt fallu se rendre a lu Curie. D'ailleurs 
Jupiter Stator, qui avait arrete les Sabines a la porte de Romulus, 
arreterait ces nouveaux ennemis qui voulaient sa ruine. La Ciceron 
pronon9a la premiere Catilinaire. Ce discours dut etre en grande partie 
improvise, car les evenements aussi improvisaient. Ciceron ne savait si 
Catilina oserait se presenter devant le senat ; en le voyant entrer, il 
con9ut son fameux exorde : ' Jusqu'a quand, Catilina, abuseras-tu de 
notre patience ! ' 

'* Malgre la garde volontaire de chevaliers qui avait accompagne 
Ciceron et qui se tenait a la porte du temple, Catilina y entra et salua 
tranqiiillement I'assemblee ; nul ne lui rendit son salut, a son approche 
on s'ecarta et les places resterent vides autour de lui. II ecouta les 
foudroyantes apostrophes de Ciceron, qui, apres I'avoir accable des 
preuves de son crime, se bornait a lui dire : ' Sors de Rome. Va-t-en ! ' 

"Catilina se leva et d'un air modeste pria le senat de ne pas croire le 
consul avant qu'unc enquete eut ete faite. ' II n'est pas vraisemblable, 
ajouta-t-il, avec une hauteur toute aristocratique, qu'un patricien, lequel, 
aussi bien que ses ancetres, a rendu quelques services a la republique, ne 
puisse exister que par sa ruine, et qu'on ait besoin d'un etranger d'Ar- 
pinum pour la sauver.' Tant d'orgueil et d'impudence revolterent 
i'assemblee; on cria a Catilina: ' Tu es un ennemi de la patrie, un 
meurtrier.' II sortit, reunit encore ses amis, leur recommanda de se 
debarasser de Ciceron, prit avec lui un aigle d 'argent qui avait appar- 
'tenu a une legion de Marius, et a minuit quitta Rome et partit par la 
voie Aurelia pour aller rejoindre son arm^e." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. 
iv. 445. 

Nearly opposite the foundations of Jupiter Stator, on the 
left, — are some remains considered to be those of the Porta 
Palatii. 

The valley is now blocked by a vast mass of building 

* Dionysius, ii. 50; Livj', i. 17. 



PAL A CE OF A UG US TUS. 1 87 

which entirely closes it. This is the palace of Augustus, 
built in the valley between the Velia and the other eminence 
of the Palatine, which Rosa, contrary to other opinioiis, 
identifies with the Gennale. The division of the Palatine 
thus named, was reckoned as one of " the seven hills " of 
ancient Rome. Its name was thought to be derived from 
Germani, owing to Romulus and Remus being found in its 
vicinity.* 

The Palace of Augustus was begun soon after the battle of 
Actium, and gradually increased in size, till the whole valley 
was blocked up by it, and its roofs became level with the 
hill-sides. Part of the ground which it covered had previ- 
ously been occupied by the villa of Catiline.t Here Sue- 
tonius says that Augustus occupied the same bed-room for 
forty years. Before the entrance of the palace it was 
ordained by the Senate, B.C. 26, that two bay-trees should be 
planted, in remembrance of the citizens he had preserved, 
while an oak wreath was placed above the gate in comme- 
moration of his victories. 

*' Singula diim miror, video fulgeniibus armis 
Conspicuos postes, tectaque digna deo. 
An Jovis haec, dixi, domus est ? Quod ut esse putarem, 

Augurium menti querna corona dabat. 
Cujus ut accessi dominum, non fallimur, inquam : 

Et magni rerum est banc Jovis esse domum. 
Cur tamen apposita relatur janua lauro ? 
Cingit et Augustas arbor opaca fores?" 

Ovid, Trist. i. 33. 

"State Palatinse laurus ; praetextaque quercu 
Stet domus ; seternos tres habet una deos." 

Fast. iv. 953. 

It was before the gate of this palace that Augustus upon 
one day in every year sate as a beggar, receiving alms from 
the passers-by, in obedience to a vision that he should thus 
appease Nemesis. 

Upon the top of this building of Augustus, Vespasian 
built his palace in a.d. 70, not only using the walls of 
the older palace as a support for his own, but filling the 
chambers of the earlier building entirely up with earth, so 
that they became a solid massive foundation. The ruins 
which we visit are thus for the most part those of the 
palace of Vespasian, but from one of its halls we can de- 

• Varr. iv. 8. f Veil. Paterc. ii. 81. 



1 88 WALKS IN ROME, 

scend into rooms underneath excavated from the palace of 
Augustus. The three projecting rostra which we now see 
in front of the palace are restorations by Signor Rosa. 

The palace on the Palatine was not the place where the 
emperors generally lived. They resided at their villas, and 
came into the town to the Palace of the Caesars for the 
transaction of public business. Thus this palace was, as it 
were, the St. James' of Rome. The fatigue and annoyance 
of a public arrival every morning, amid the crowd of clients 
who always waited upon the imperial footsteps, was natur- 
ally very great, and to obviate this the emperors made use 
of a subterranean passage which ran round the whole 
building, and by which they were enabled to arrive unob- 
served, and not to present themselves in pubhc till their 
appearance upon the rostra in front of the building to receive 
the morning salutations of their people. . 

If we ascend a winding path to the right, to the garden 
which now covers the greater part of the hill Germale, we 
shall find a staircase which descends on the left to join this 
passage, following which, we will ascend, with the emperor, 
into his palace. 

The passage, called Crypfo-Forticus, is still quite perfect, 
and retains a great part of its mosaic pav^ements and much 
of its inlaid ceilings, from which the gilt mosaic has been 
picked out, but the pattern is still traceable. The passage 
was lighted from above. It was by this route that St. 
Laurence was led up for trial in the basiHca of the 
palace. Turning to the left, we again emerge upon the 
upper level. 

The emperor here reached the palace, but as he did not 
yet wish to appear in public, he turned to the left by the 
private passage called Fauces, which still remains, running 
behind the main halls of the building. Here he was received 
by the different members of the imperial family, much as 
Napoleon III. was received by Princesses Matilde, Clotilde, 
and the Murats, in a private apartment at the Tuileries, 
before entering the ball-room. Hence, passing across the 
end of the basilica, the emperor reached the portico in front 
of the palace, looking down upon the hollow space where 
v/ere the Temple of Jupiter Stator and the other buildings 
connected with the early history of the Roman state. Here 
the whole Court received him and escorted him to the central 



THE BASILICA. 189 

rostra, where he had his pubHc reception from the people 
assembled below, and whence perhaps he addressed to 
them a few words of morning salutation in return. The 
attendants meanwhile defiled on either side to the lower 
terraced elevation, which still remains. 

This ceremony being gone through, the emperor returned 
as he came, to the basiUca, for the transaction of business. 

The name Basilica means " King's House." It was the 
ancient Law Court. It usually had a portico, was oblong 
in form, and ended in an apse for ornament. The Chris- 
tians adopted it for their places of worship because it was the 
largest type of building then known. They also adopted 
the names of the different parts of the pagan basilica, as 
the Confessional, from the Confession^ the bar of justice at 
which the criminal was placed, — the Tribune, from the 
Tribunal of the Judge, &c. A chapel and sacristy added 
on either side produced the form of the cross. The 
Basilica here is of great width. A leg of the emperor's 
chair actually remains in situ upon the tribunal, and part of 
the richly wrought bar of the Confession still exists. This 
was the bar at which St. Laurence and many other Christian 
martyrs were judged. The basilica in the palace of the 
Caesars was also the scene of the trial of Valerius Asiaticus 
in the time of Claudius (see Chap. II.), when the Empress 
Messalina, who was seated near the emperor upon the 
tribunal, was so overcome by the touching eloquence of the 
innocent man, that she was obliged to leave the hall to 
conceal her emotion, — but characteristically whispered as she 
went out, that the accused must nevertheless on no account 
be suffered to escape with his life,'^ — that she might take 
possession of his Pincian Garden, which was as Naboth's 
Vineyard in her eyes. An account is extant which describes 
how it was necessary to increase the width of the seat 
upon the tribunal at this period, in consequence of a change 
in the fashion of dress among the Roman ladies. 

I'his basilica, though perhaps not then itself in existence, 
will always have peculiar interest as showing the form and 
character of that earlier basilica in the Palace of the Caesars, 
in which St. Paul was tried before Nero. But it is quite 
possible that it may be the same actual basilica itself, — and 
tJiat the palace of Nero which overran the whole of the 

• Tac. Ahiu xi. 2. 



igo WALK'S IN ROME. 

hill, may have had its basilica on this site, where it was 
preserved by Vespasian in his later and more contracted 
palace. 

" The appeals from the provhices in civil causes were heard, not by 
the emperor himself, but by his delegates, who were persons of consular 
rank : Augustus had appointed one such delegate to hear appeals from 
each province respectively. But criminal appeals appear generally to 
have been heard by the emperor in person, assisted by his council of 
assessors. Tiberius and Claudius had usually sat for this purpose in the 
Forum ; but Nero, after the example of Augustus, heard these causes in 
the imperial palace, whose ruins still crown the Palatine. Here, at one 
end of a splendid hall,* lined with the precious marbles of Egypt and 
of Libya, we must imagine Csesar seated in the midst of his assessors. 
These councillors, twenty in number, were men of the highest rank and 
greatest influence. Among them were the two consuls and selected repre- 
sentatives of each of the other great magistracies of Rome. The remainder 
consisted of senators chosen by lot. Over this distinguished bench of 
judges presided the representatives of the most powerful inonarchy which 
has ever existed, — the absolute ruler of the whole civilised world. 

" Before the tribunal of the blood-stained adulterer Nero, Paul was 
brought in fetters, under the custody of his military guard. The prose- 
cutors and their witnesses were called forward, to support their accus- 
ation ; for although the subject-matter for decision was contained 
in the written depositions forwarded from Judaea by Festus, yet the 
Roman law required the personal presence of the accusers and the 
witnesses, whenever it could be obtained. We already know the charges 
brought against the Apostle. He was accused of disturbing the Jews in 
the exercise of their worship, which was secured to them by law ; of 
desecrating their Temple ; and, above all, of violating the public peace 
of the empire by perpetual agitation, as the ringleader of a new and 
factious sect. This charge was the most serious in the view of a Roman 
statesman ; for the crime alleged amounted to inajcstas, or treason against 
the commonwealth, and was punishable with death. 

" These accusations were supported by the emissaries of the Sanhe- 
drim, and probably by the testimony of witnesses from Judaea, Ephesus, 
Corinth, and the other scenes of Paul's activity. . . . When the 
parties on both sides had been heard, and the witnesses all examined, 
the judgment of the court was taken. Each of the assessors gave his 
opinion in writing to the emperor, who never discussed the judgment 
with his assessors, as had been the practice of better emperors, but after 
reading their opinion, gave sentence according to his own pleasure, 
without reference to the judgment of the majority. On this occasion it 
might have been expected that he would have pronounced the condemn- 
ation of the accused, for the influence of Poppaca had now reached its 
culminating point, and she was a Jewish proselyte. We can scarcely i 
doubt that the emissaries from Palestine would have demanded her aid ■ 
for the destruction of a traitor to the Jewish faith ; nor would any scruples 
have prevented her listening to their request, backed as it probably was, 

♦ Dion Cassius mentions that the ceilings of Halls of Justice in the Palatine were 
painted by Severus to represent the starry sky. 'I'he old Roman practice was for the 
magistrate to sit under the open sky, which probably suggested thi:> kind of ceiling. 



PALACE OF AUGUSTUS, 191 

according to Roman usage, by a bribe. However this may be, the trial 
resulted in the acquittal of St. Paul. He was pronounced guiltless of 
the charges brought against him, his fetters Avere struck off, and he was 
liberated from his long captivity." — Conyheare and Nowson. 

Beyond the basilica is the Tablinwn, the great hall of the 
palace, which served as a kind of commemorative domestic 
museum, where family statues and pictures were preserved. 
This vast room was lighted from above, on the plan which 
may still be.seen at Sta. Maria degU Angeh, which was in 
fact a great hall of a Roman house. The roof of this hall 
was one vast arch, unsupported except by the side walls. 
We have record of a period when these walls were supposed 
insufficient for the great weight, and had to be strengthened, 
in interesting confirmation of which we can still see how 
the second wall was added and united to the first. 

Appropriately opening from the family picture galler)'- of 
the Tablinum, was the Larariiwi^ a private chapel for the 
worship of such members of the family — Livia and many 
others — as were deified after death. An altar, on the ori- 
ginal site, has been erected here by Signor Rosa, from bits 
which have been found. 

Hitherto the chambers which we have visited were open 
to the public ; beyond this, none but his immediate family 
and attendants could follow the emperor. We now enter 
the Peristyle^ a courtyard, which was open to the sky, but 
surrounded with arcades orrramented with statues, where we 
may imagine that the empresses amused themselves with their 
birds and flowers. Hence, by a narrow staircase, we can 
descend into what is perhaps the most interesting portion of 
the whole, the one unearthed fragment of the actual Palace 
of Augustus, which still retains remains of gilding and 
fresco, and an artistic group in stucco. An original window 
remains, and it will be recollected on looking at it, that 
when this was built it was not subterranean, but merely in 
the hollow of the valley, aftenvards filled up. In these 
actual rooms may have lived Livia, who in turn inhabited 
three houses on the Palatine, first that of her first husband 
Nero Drusus, whom Augustus compelled her to divorce; 
then the imperial house of Augustus ; and lasdy that of 
Tiberius, the son by her first husband, whom she was the 
means of raising to the throne. 

We now reach the Triclinium or dining-room, surrounded 



192 WALKS IN ROME. 

by a skirting of pavonazzetto with a cornice of giallo. 
Tacitus describes a scene in the imperial triclinium, in 
which the Emperor Tiberius is represented as reclining at 
dinner, having on one side his aged mother, the Empress 
Livia, and on the other his niece Agrippina, widow of 
Germanicus and granddaughter of the great Augustus.* 
It was while the imperial family were seated at a banquet 
in the triclinium, in the time of Nero, that his young 
step-brother Britannicus (son of Claudius and Messalina) 
swallowed the cup of poison which the emperor had caused 
Locusta to prepare and sank back dead upon his couch, his 
wretched sisters Antonia and Octavia, also seated at the 
ghastly feast, not daring to give expression to their grief and 
horror, — and Nero merely desiring the attendants to carry 
the boy out, and saying that it was a fit to which he was 
subject. t Here it was that Marcia the concubine presented 
the cup of drugged wine to the wicked Commodus, on his 
return from a wild beast hunt, and produced the heavy 
slumber during which he was strangled by the wrestler 
Narcissus. In this very room also his successor Pertinax, 
who had spent his short reign of three months in trying to 
reform the State, resuscitate the finances, and to heal, as 
far as possible, ' the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny,' 
received the news that the guard, impatient of unwonted 
discipline, had risen against him, and going forth to meet 
his. assassins, fell, covered with wounds, just in front of the 
palace. J 

Vitruvius says that every well-arranged Roman house has 
a dining-room opening into a nymph^eum, and accordingly 
here, on the right, is a Nymphceum, with a beautiful fountain 
surrounded by miniature niches, once filled with bronzes 
and statues. Water was conveyed hither by the Neronian 
aqueduct. The pavement of this room was of oriental 
alabaster, of which fragments remain. 

Beyond the Triclinium is a disgusting memorial of Roman 
imperial Hfe, in the Vomitoriwn, with its bason, whither the 
feasters retired to tickle their throats with feathers, and 
come back with renewed appetite to the banquet. 

We now reach the portico which closed the principal 
apartments of the palace on the south-west. Some of its 

♦ .-\ijii. iv. 54. t Tac. Ann. xiii. 18; Suet. Ner. 33; Dion. Ixi. 7. 

X Se^ Gibbon, i. 133, 



TEMPLE OF JUPITER-VICTOR. 193 

Gorinthian pillars have been re-erected on the sites where 
they were found. From hence we can look down upon 
some grand w^alls of republican times, formed of huge tufa 
blocks. 

Passing a space of ground, called, without much author- 
ity, Bibliotheca, we reach a small Theatre on the edge of 
the hill, interesting as described by Pliny, and because the 
Emperor Vespasian, who is known to have been especially 
fond of reciting his own compositions, probably did so 
here. Hence we may look down upon the valley between 
the Palatine and Aventine, where the rape of the Sabines 
took place, and upon the site of the Circus Maximus. 
From hence, we may imagine, that the later emperors sur- 
veyed the hunts and games in that circus, when they did 
not care to descend into the amphitheatre itself. 

Beyond this, on the right, is (partially restored) the grand 
staircase leading to the platform once occupied by the 
Temple of J^upiter- Victor^ vowed by Fabius Maximus during 
the Samnite war, in the assurance that he would gain the 
victory. On the steps is a sacrificial altar, which retains its 
grooves for the blood of the victims, with an inscription 
stating that it was erected by "Cnaeus Domitius C. Calvi- 
nus, Pontifex," — who was a general under Julius Csesar, and 
consul B.C. 53 and b.c. 40. 

Now, for some distance, there are no remains, because 
this space w^as always kept clear, for here, constantly re- 
newed, stood the Hut of Faustiihis and the Saa-ed Fig-tree. 

"The old Roman legend ran as follows : — Procas, king of Alba, left 
two sons- Numitor, the elder, being weak and spiritless, suffered 
Amulius to wrest the government from him, and reduce him to his 
father's private estates. In the enjoyment of these he lived rich, and, 
iS he desired nothing morcj secure : but the usurper dreaded the claims 
that might be set up by heirs of a different character. He had Numi- 
tor's son murdered, and appointed his daughter, Silvia, one of the Vestal 
virgins. 

"Amulius had no children, or at least only one daughter: so that 
the race of Anchises and Aphrodite seemed on the point of expiring, 
when the love of a god prolonged it, in spite of the ordinances of man, 
and gave it a lustre worthy of its origin. Silvia had gone into the 
sacred grove, to draw water from the spring for the service of the temple. 
The sun quenched its rays : the sight of a wolf made her fly into a cave : 
there Mars overpowered the timid virgin, and then consoled her witli 
the promise of noble children, as Posidon consoled Tyro, the daughter 
of Salmoneus. But he did not protect her from the tyrant ; nor could 
the protestations of her innocence save her. Vesta herself seemed to 



194 IVALKS IN ROME. 

demand the condemnation of the unfortunate priestess ; for at the 
moment when she was delivered of twins, the image of the goddess hid 
its eyes, her altar trembled, and her fire died away. Amulius ordered 
that the mother and her babes should be drowned in the river. In the 
Anio Silvia exchanged her earthly life for that of a goddess. The river 
carried the bole or cradle, in which the children were lying, into 
the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks far and wide, even to the 
foot of the woody hills. At the root of a wild fig-tree, the Ficus 
Ruminalis, which was preserved and held sacred for many centuries, at 
the foot of the Palatine, the cradle overturned. A she-wolf came to 
drink of the stream : she heard the whimpering of the children, carried 
them into her den hard by, made a bed for them, licked and suckled 
them. When they wanted other food than milk, a woodpecker, the 
bird sacred to Mars, brought it to them. Other birds consecrated to 
auguries hovered over them, to drive away insects. This marvellous 
spectacle was seen by Faustulus, the shepherd of the royal flocks. The 
she- wolf drew back, and gave up the children to human nature. Acca 
Laurentia, his wife, became their foster-mother. They grew up, along 
with her twelve sons, on the Palatine hill, in straw huts which they built 
for themselves : that of Romulus was preserved by continual repairs, as 
a sacred relic, down to the time of Nero. They were the stoutest of the 
shepherd lads, fought bravely against wild beasts and robbers, main- 
taining their right against every one by their might, and turning might 
into right. Their booty they shared with their comrades. The followers 
of Romulus were called Quinctilii, those of Remus Fabii : the seeds 
of discord were soon sown amongst them. Their wantonness engaged 
them in disputes with the shepherds of the wealthy Numitor, who fed 
their flocks on Mount Aventine : so that here, as in the story of Evander 
and Cacus, we find the quai-rel between the Palatine and the Aventine 
in the tales of the remotest times. Remus was taken by the stratagem 
of these shepherds, and dragged to Alba as a robber. A secret fore- 
boding, the remembrance of his grandsons, awakened by the stoiy of 
the two brothers, kept Numitor from pronouncing a hasty sentence. 
The culprit's foster-father hastened with Romulus to the city, and told 
the old man and the youths of their kindred. They resolved to avenge 
their own wrong and that of their house. With their faithful comrades, 
whom the dangers of Remus had brought to the city, they slew the 
king ; and the people of Alba again became subject to Numitor. 

" But love for the home which fate had assigned them drew the 
youths back to the banks of the Tiber, to found a city there, and the 
shepherds, their old companions, were their first citizens. . . . This 
is the old tale, as it was written by Fabius, and sung in ancient lays 
down to the time of Dionysius. " — Niebuhr's Hist, of Rome. 

In the cliff of the Palatine, below the fig-tree, was shown 
for many centuries the cavern Liipercal, sacred from the 
earliest times to the Pelasgic god Pan. 

*' Hinc lucum ingentum, quem Romulus acer Asylum 
Retulit, et gelida monstrat sub rupe Lupercal, 
Parrhasio dictum Panos de moute Lycaei." 

Virgil i ySw. viii. 343. 



THE LUPERCAL. 195 

**La louve, nourrice de Romulus, a peut-etre ete imaginee en raison 
(les rapports mythologiques qui existaient entre le loup et Pan defenseur 
des troupeaux. Ce qu'il y a de sur, c'est que les fetes lupercales 
garderent le caractere du dieu en I'honneur duquel elles avaient ete 
primitivement instituees et I'empreinte d'une origine pelasgique ; ces 
fetes au temps de Ciceron avaient encore un caractere pastoral en 
memoire de I'Arcadie d'oii on les croyait venues. Les Luperques qui 
representaient les Satyres, compagnons de Pan, faisaient le tour de 
I'antique sejour des Pelasges sur le Palatin. Ces hommes nus allaient 
frappant avec les lanieres de peau de bouc, I'animal lascif par excellence, 
les femmes pour les rendre fecondes ; des fetes analogues se celebraient 
en Arcadie sous le nom de Lukeia (les fetes des loups), dont le mot 
lupercales est une traduction." — Ampere, Hist. Rome, i. 143. 

In the hut of Romulus were preserved several objects 
venerated as reUcs of him. 

** On conservait le baton augural avec lequel Romulus avait dessine 
sur le ciel, suivant le rite etrusque, I'espace ou s'etait manifeste le grand 
auspice des douze vautours dans lesquels Rome crut voir la promesse des 
douze siecles qu'en effet le destin devait lui accorder. Tous les augures 
se sei'vu-ent par la suite de ce baton sacre, qui fut trouve intact apres 
I'incendie du monument dans lequel il etait conserve, miracle paien dont 
I'equivalent pourrait se rencontrer dans plus d'une legende de la Rome 
chretienne. On montrait le cornouiller ne du bois de la lance que 
Romulus, avec la vigueur surhumaine d'un demi-dieu, avait jetee de 
I'Aventin sur le Palatin, ou elle s'etait enfoncee dans la terre et avait 
produit un grand arbre. 

"On montrait sur le Palatin le berceau et la cabane de Romulus. 
Plutarque a vu ce berceau, le Saitto-Presepio des anciens Romains, qui 
etait attache avec des liens d'airain, et sur lequel on avait trace des 
caracteres mysterieux. La cabane etait a un seul etage, en planches et 
couverte de roseaux, que Ton reconstruisait pieusement chaque fois qu'un 
incendie la detruisait ; car elle brula a diverses reprises, ce que la nature 
des materiaux dont elle etait formee fait croire facilement. J'ai vu dans 
les environs de Rome un cabaret rustique dont la toiture etait exactement 
pareille a celle de la cabane de Romulus." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. 342. 

Turning along the terrace which overhangs the Velabrum 
we reach the ruins of the Palace of Tiberius* in which 
he resided during the earlier part of his reign, when he was 
under the influence of his aged and imperious mother 
Livia. Here he had to mourn for Drusus, his only son, 
who fell a victim (a.d. 23) to poison administered to him 
by his wife Livilla and her lover the favourite Sejanus. 
Here also, m a.d. 29, died Livia, widow of Augustus, at the 
age of eighty-six, " a memorable example of successful 
artifice, having attained in succession, by craft if not by 

* Tacitus, Hist. i. 77; Suet. Vitell. 15. 



196 WALKS IN ROME. 

crime, every object she could desire in the career of female 
ambition."* 

The row of arches remaining are those of the soldiers' 
quarters. In the fourth arch is a curious graffite of a ship. 
In another the three pavements in use at different times 
may be seen /;/ situ, one above another. On the terrace 
above these arches has recently been discovered a large 
piscina, or fish-pond, and the painted chambers of a build- 
ing, which is supposed to have been the House of Drusus 
(elder brother of Tiberius), and A7itonia. Several of the 
rooms in this building are richly decorated in fresco, one 
has a picture of a street with figures of females going to a 
sacrifice, and of ladies at their toilette ; another of Mercury, 
lo, and Argus ; and a third of Galatea and Polyphemus. 
From the names of the characters in these pictures repre- 
sented being afiixed to them in Greek, we may naturally 
conclude that they are the work of Greek artists. 

The north-eastern corner of the area is entirely occupied 
by the vast ruins of the Palace of Caligula, built against 
the side of the hill above the Clivus VictoricE, which still 
remains, and consisting of ranges of small rooms, communi- 
cating with open galleries, edged by marble balustrades, 
of which a portion exists. In these rooms the half-mad 
Caius Caligula rushed about, sometimes dressed as a 
charioteer, sometimes as a warrior, and delighted in 
astonishing his courtiers by his extraordinary pranks, or 
shocking them by trying to enforce a belief in his own 
divinity, t 

** C'est dansce palais que, tourmente par I'insomnie et par I'agitation 
de son ame furieuse, il passera une partie de la nuit a errer sous d'im- 
menses portiques, attendant et appellant le jour. C'est la aussi qu'il 
aura I'incroyable idee de placer un dieu infame. 

'* Caligula se fit batir sur le Palatin deux temples. II avait d'abord 
voulu avoir une demeure sur le mont Capitolin ; mais, ayant reflechi 
que Jupiter I'avait precede au Capitole, il en prit de I'humeur et retourna 
sur le Palatin. Dans les folies de Caligula, on voit se manifester cette 
pensee : Jesuis dieu ! pensee qui n'etait peut-etre pas tres-extraordinaire 
chez un jeune homme de vingt-cinq ans devenu tout-a-coup maitre du 
monde. II parut en effet croire a sa divinite, pi^enant le nom et les 
attributs de divers dieux, et changeant de nature divine en changeant 
de perruque, 

" Non content de s'elever un temple a lui-meme, Caligula en vint a 
etre son propre pretre et a s'adorer. Le despotisme oriental avait 

• Merivale, ch. xlv. f Suet. CaL 32. 



PALACE OF CALIGULA.— CLIVUS VICTORIA. 197 

connu cette adoration etrange de soi : sur les monuments de I'Egypteon 
voit Ramses-roi presenter son offrande a Ramses-dieu ; mais Caligula 
fit ce que n'avait fait aucun Pharaon ; il se donna pour collegue, dans ce 
culte de sa propre personne, son cheval, qu'il ne nomma pas, mais qu'il 
songea un moment de nommer consul." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 8. 

Here "one day at a public banquet, when the consuls were reclin- 
ing by his side, Caligula burst suddenly into a fit of laughter ; and 
when they courteously inquired the cause of his mirth, astounded them 
by coolly replying that he was thinking how by one word he could cause 
both their heads to roll on the floor. He amused himself with similar 
banter even with his wife Csesonia, for whom he seems to have had a 
stronger feeling than for any of his former consorts. While fondling 
her neck he is reported to have said, ' Fair as it is, how easily I could 
sever it,'" — Merivale, ch. xlviii. 

After the murder of Caligula (Jan. 24, 794) by the tribune 
Cheraea, in the vaulted passage which led from the palace 
to the theatre, a singular chance which occurred in this 
part of the palace led to the elevation of Claudius to the 
throne. 

*' In the confusion which ensued upon the death of Caius, several of 
the praetorian guards had flung themselves furiously into the palace and 
began to plunder its glittering chambers. None dared to offer them 
any opposition ; the slaves or freedmen fled and concealed themselves. 
One of the inmates, half-hidden behind a curtain in an obscure comer, 
was dragged forth with brutal violence ; and great was the intruder's 
surprise when they recognised him as Claudius, the long despised and 
neglected uncle of the murdered emperor.* He sank at their feet al- 
most senseless with terror : but the soldiers in their wildest mood still 
respected the blood of the Caesars, and instead of slaying or maltreating 
the suppliant, the brother of Germanicus, they hailed him, more in jest 
perhaps than earnest, with the title of Imperator, and carried him off 
to their camp." — Merivale, ch. xlix. 

In this same palace Claudius was feasting when he was 
told that his hitherto idolised wife Messalina was dead, 
without being told whether she died by her own hand or 
another's, — and asked no questions, merely desiring a servant 
to pour him out some more wine, and went on eating his 
supper. t Here also Claudius, who so dearly loved eating, 
devoured his last and fatal supper of poisoned mushrooms 
which his next loving wife (and niece) Agrippina prepared 
for him, to make way for her son Nero upon the throne. | 

The Clivus Victoriae commemorates by its name the 
Temple of Victory,^ said to have been founded by the 

* Suet. Claiid. lo. " Prorepsit ad solarium proximum, interque praetenta foribus 
vela se abdidit." The solarium was the external terraced portico, and this still 
remains. 

t Tac. An7i. xi. 37, 38 ; Dion. Ix. 31 ; Suet. Claud. 39. 

X Tac. Ann. xii. 67 ; Suet. Claud. 44. ' § Dionysius, i. 32 ; Livy, xxix. 14. 



198 WALKS IN ROME. 

Sabine aborigines before the time of Romulus, and to be 
the earUest temple at Rome of which there is any mention 
except that of Saturnus. This temple was rebuilt by the 
consul L. Posthumius. 

Chief of a group of small temples, the famous Tefnple of 
Cybek, " Mother of the Gods," stood at this corner of the 
Palatine. Thirteen years before it was built, the " Sacred 
Stone," the form under which the " Idaean Mother " was 
worshipped, had been brought from Pessinus in Phrygia, 
because, according to the Sibylline books, frequent showers 
of stones which had occurred could only be expiated by 
its being transported to Rome. It was given up to the 
Romans by their ally Attalus, king of Pergamus, and P. 
Cornelius Scipio, the young brother of Africanus — accounted 
the worthiest and most virtuous of the Romans — was sent 
to receive it. As the vessel bearing the holy stone came 
up the Tiber it grounded at the foot of the Aventine, when 
the aruspices declared that only chaste hands would be able 
to move it. Then the Vestal Claudia drew the vessel up 
the river by a rope. 

"Ainsi Sainte Brigitte, Suedoise morte a Rome, prouva sa purete en 
touchant le bois de I'autel, qui reverdit soudain. Une statue fut erigee 
a Claudia, dans le vestibule du temple de Cybele. Bien qu'elle cut ete, 
disait on, seule epargnee dans deux incendies du temple, nous n'avons 
plus cette statue, mais nous avons au Capitole un bas-relief ou I'evene- 
ment miraculeux est represente. C'est un autel dedie par une affranchie 
de \?i.gens Claudia ; il a ete trouve au pied de I'Aventin, pres du lieu 
qu'on designait comme celui oii avait ete opere le miracle." — Ampere, 
Hist. jRom. iii, 142. 

In her temple, which was round and surmounted by a 
cupola, Cybele was represented by a statue with its face 
to the east ; the building was adorned with a painting of 
Corybantes, and plays were acted in front of it.* 

' ' Qua madidi sunt tecta Lyaei 
Et Cybeles picto stat Corybante domus." 

Martial, Ep. i. 71, 9. 

This temple, after its second destruction by fire, was 
entirely rebuilt by Augustus in a.d, 2. 

"Cybele est certainement la grande deesse, la grande mere, c'est-a- 
dire la personnification de la fecondite et de la vie universelle : bizarre 
idole qui presente le spectacle hideux de mamelles disposes par paires 
le long d'un corps comme enveloppe dans une gaine, et d'oii sortent des 

* Dyer's Hist, of the City of Rome. 



TEMPLE OF APOLLO. 199 

taureaux et des abeilles, images des forces creatrices et des puissances 
ordonnatrices de la nature. On honorait cette deesse de I'Asie par des 
orgies furieuses, par un melange de debauche effren^e et de rites cruels ; 
ses pretres efifemines dansaient au son des flutes lydiennes et de ses 
crotales, veritables castagnettes, semblables a celles que fait resonner 
aujourd'hui la paysanne romaine en dansant lafougueusejt7//ar^//^. On 
voit au musee du Capitole I'effigie bas-relief d'un archigalie, d'un chef de 
ces pretres insenses, et pres de lui les attributs de la deesse asiatique, les 
flutes, les crotales, et la mysterieuse corbeille. Get archigalle, avec son 
air de femme, sa robe qui conviendrait a une femme, nous retrace I'espece 
de demence religieuse a laquelle s'associaient les delires pervers d'He- 
liogabale." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 310. 

We have the authority of Martial* that in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the temple of Cybele, stood the Temple of 
Apollo, though Signor Rosa places it on the other side of 
the hill in the gardens of S. Buonaventura. Its remains 
have yet to be discovered. 

"Nothing could exceed the magnificence of this temple, according 
•to the accounts of ancient authors. Pi-opertius, who was present at its 
dedication, has devoted a short elegy to the description of it, and Ovid 
describes it as a splendid structure of white marble. 

' Turn medium claro surgebat marmore templum, 
Et patria Phabo carius Ortygia. 
Auro solis erat supra fastigia currus, 

Et valvse Libyci nobile dentis opus. 
Altera dejectos Parnassi vertice Gallos, 
Altera moerebat funera Tantalidos. 
Deinde inter matrem Deus ipse, interque sororem 
Pythius in longa carmina veste sonat. ' 

Fropertius, ii. EL 31. 
* Inde timore pari gradibus sublimia celsis 
Ducor ad intonsi Candida templa Dei.' 

Ovid, Trist iii. El. I. 
"From the epithet aurea porticus, it seems probable that the cornice 
of the portico which surrounded it was gilt. The columns were of 
African marble, ox giallo-antico, and must have been fifty-two in number, 
as between them were the statues of the fifty Danaids, and that of their 
father, brandishing a naked sword. 

' Quseris cur veniam tibi tardior ? aurea Phcebi 

Porticus a magno C^esare aperta fuit. 
Tota erat in speciem Poenis digesta columnis : 
Inter quas IDanai fcemina turba senis.' 

Propert. ii. El. 31. 
* Signa peregrinis ubi sunt alterna columnis 
Belides, et stricto barbarus ense pater.' 

Ovid, Trist. iii. I. 61. 

**Here also was a statue of Apollo sounding the lyre, apparently a 
* Ep. i. ^Oi 



200 WALKS IN ROME, 

likeness of Augustus: ; whose beauty wnen a youth, to judge from his 
bust in the Vatican, might well entitle him to counterfeit the god. 
Around the altar were the images of four oxen, the work of Myron, so 
beautifully sculptured that they seemed alive. In the middle of the 
portico rose the temple, apparently of Avhite marble. Over the pediment 
was the chariot of the sun. The gates were of ivory, one of them 
sculptured with the story of the giants hurled down from the heights of 
Parnassus, the other representing the destruction of the Niobids. 
Inside the temple was the statue of Apollo in a tunica talaris, or long 
garment, between his mother Latona and his sister Diana, the work of 
Scopas, Cephisodorus, and Timotheus. Under the base of Apollo's 
statue Augustus caused to be buried the Sibylline books which he had 
selected and placed in gilt chests. Attached to the temple was a library 
called Bibliothcca Grceca et Latina, apparently, however, only one 
structure, containing the literature of both tongues. Only the choicest 
works Avere admitted to the honour of a place in it, as we may infer from 
Horace : 

'Tangere vitet 
Scripta, Palatinus qusecunque recepit Apollo.' 

Ep. i. 3. 16. 

"The library appears to have contained a bronze statue of Apollo, 
fifty feet high ; whence we must conclude that the roof of the hall 
exceeded that height. In this library, or more probably, perhaps, in 
an adjoining apartment, poets, orators, and philosophers recited theif 
productions. The listless demeanour of the audience on such occasions 
seems, from the description of the younger Pliny, to have been, in 
general, not over-encouraging. Attendance seems to have been con- 
sidered as a friendly duty." — Dyei' s City of Rome ^ 

The temple of Apollo was built by Augustus to com- 
memorate the battle of Actium. He appropriated to it part 
of the land covered with houses which he had purchased 
upon the Palatine ; — another part he gave to the Vestals ; 
the third he used for his own palace. 

" Phoebus habet partem, Vestae pars altera cessit : 
Quod superest illis, tertius ipse tenet. 



Stet domus, seternos tres habet una deos." 

Ovid, Fast. iv. 951. 

Thus Apollo and Vesta became as it were the household 
gods of Augustus : 

" Vestaque C^esareos inter sacrata penates, 
Et cum Caesarea tu, Phoebe domestice, Vesta." 

Ovid, Mctam. xv. 864. 

Other temples on the Palatine were that of yuno Sospita : 

" Principio mensis Phrygise contermina Matri 
Sospita delubris dicitur aucta novis." 

Ovidt Fast. ii. 55. 



/ 



TORRE TTA DEL PAL A TIN O. aoi 

of Minerva : 

*' Sexte, Palatinee cultor facuiide Minervae 
Ingenio frueris qui propiore Dei." 

Martial, v. Ep. 5. 

a temple of Moonlight mentioned by Varro (iv. 10) and a 

shrine of Vesta. 

" Vestaque Coesareos inter sacrata penates." 

Ovid, Met i. 

From the Torretta del Palatifio, wKich. is near the house of 
Caligula, there is a magnificent view over the seven hills of 
Rome ; — the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Coelian, Quirinal, 
Viminal, and Esquiline. From this point also it is very | 
interesting to remember that these were not the heights 
considered as " the Seven Hills " in the ancient history of 
Rome, when the sacrifices of the Septimontiwn were offered 
upon the Palatine, Velia, and Germale, the three divisions 
of the Palatine — of which one can no longer be traced \ 
upon the Fagutal, Oppius, and Cispius, the secondary 
heights of the Esquiline ; and upon the Suburra, which 
perhaps comprehended the Viminal.* Hence also we see 
the ground we have traversed on the Palatine spread before 
us like a map. 

If we descend the staircase in the Palace of Caligul a, we - 
may trace as far as the Porta Romana the piers of the 
Bridge of Caligula, which, half in vanity, half in madness, he 
threw across the valley, that he might, as he said, the more 
easily hold intercourse with his friend and comrade Jupiter 
upon the Capitol. One of the piers which he used for his 
bridge, beyond the limits of the palace, was formed by 
the temple of Augustus built by Jiber ius.f This bridge, 
with all other works of Caligula, was of very short duration, 
being destroyed immediately after his death by Claudius. 

Returning by the Clivus Victorise, we shall find ourselves 
again on the eastern slope of the hill from which we started, 
the site once occupied by so many of the great patrician 
families. Here at one time lived Caius Gracchus, who to 
gratify the populace, gave up his house on the side of the 
Palatine, and made his home in the gloomy Suburra. Here 
also lived his coadjutor in the consulship, Fulvius Flaccus, 
who shared his fate, and whose house was razed to the ground 
by the people after his murder. At this corner of the hill also 

* Festus, 340, 348. t Suet. Tib. 47 ; Cal. 21, 22 ; Tac. Ann. vi. 45. 



202 WALKS IN- ROME. 

was the house of Q. Lutatius Catukis, poet and historian, 
who was consul B.C. 102, and together with Marius was 
conqueror of the Cimbri in a great battle near Vercelli. In 
memory of this he founded a temple of the " Fortuna 
hujusce diei," and decorated the portico of his house with 
Cimbrian trophies. Varro mentions that his house had also 
a domed roof.* Here also the consul Octavius, murdered 
on the Janiculum by the partisans of Marius, had a house, 
which was rebuilt with great magnificence by Emilius 
Scaurus, who adorned it with columns of marble thirty- 
eight feet high.t These two last-named houses were bought 
by the wealthy Clodius, who gave 14,800,000 sesterces, or 
about 130,000/., for that of Scaurus, and throwing down 
the Portions Catuli, included its site, and the house of 
E. Scaurus, in his own magnificent dwelling. Clodius 
was a member of the great house of the Claudii, and 
was the favoured lover of Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar, 
by whose connivance, disguised as a female musician, he 
attempted to be present at the orgies of the Bona Dea, 
which were celebrated in the house of the Pontifex 
Maximus close to the temple of Vesta, and from which 
men were so carefully excluded, that even a male mouse, 
says Juvenal, dared not show himself there. The position 
of his own dwelling, and that of the pontifex, close to the 
foot of the Clivus Victoriae, afforded every facility for this 
adventure, but it was discovered by his losing himself in the 
passages of the Regia. A terrible scandal was the result — 
Caesar divorced Pompeia, and the senate referred the matter 
to the pontifices, who declared that Clodius was guilty of 
sacrilege. Clodius attempted to prove an alibi, but Cicero's 
evidence showed that he was with him in Rome only three 
hours before he pretended to have been at Interamna. 
Briber)' and intimidation secured his acquittal by a majority 
of thirty-one to twenty-five, J but from this time a deadly 
enmity ensued between him and Cicero. 

The house of Clodius naturally leads us to that of Cicero, 
which was also situated at this corner of the Palatine, 
whence he could see his clients in the Forum and .2:0 to 
and fro to his duties there. This house had been built for 
M. Livius Drusus, who, when his architect pr Dposed a plan 

* De re Rust. iii. 5. t Pliny, xxxvi. 2. 

+ See Smith's Diet, of Roman Biography. 



HOUSE OF CICERO. 203 

to prevent its being overlooked, answered, " Rather build it 
so that all my fellow-citizens may behold everything that I 
do." In his acts Drusus seemed to imitate the Gracchi ; but 
he sought popularity for its own sake, and after being the 
object of a series of conspiracies was finally murdered in the 
presence of his mother Cornelia, in his own hall, where the 
image of his father was sprinkled with his. blood. When 
dying he turned to those around him and asked, with 
characteristic arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious 
honesty of purpose, " when will the commonwealth have a 
citizen like me again ? " After the death of Drusus the 
house was inhabited by L. Licinius Crassus the orator, 
who lived here in great elegance and luxury. His house 
was called from its beauty " the Venus of the Palatine," and 
was remarkable for its size, the taste of its furniture, and 
the beauty of its gi'ounds. "It was adorned with pillars 
of Hymettian marble, with expensive vases, and triclinia 
inlaid with brass. His gardens were provided with fish- 
ponds, and some noble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Ahe- 
nobarbus, his colleague in the censorship, found fault with 
such corruption of manners,* estimated his house at a 
hundred million, or, according to Valerius Maximus,t six 
million sesterces, and complained of his crying for the 
loss of a lamprey as if it had been a daughter. It was a 
tame lamprey which used to come at the call of Crassus, 
and feed out of his hand. Crassus retorted by a public 
speech against his colleague, and by his great powers of 
ridicule, turned him into derision ; jested upon his name, J 
and to the accusation of Aveeping for a lamprey, rephed, that 
it was more than Ahenobarbus had done for the loss of any 
of his three wives." § Cicero purchased the house of Crassus 
a year or two after his consulate for a sum equal to about 
30,000/., and removed thither from the Carinae with his wife 
Terentia. His house was close to that of Clodius, but a 
little lower down the hill, which enabled him to threaten to 
increase the height, so as to shut out his neighbour's view of 
the city. Upon his accession to the tribuneship Clodius 
procured the disgrace of Cicero, and after his flight to 
Greece, obtained a decree of banishment against him. He 
then pillaged and destroyed his house upon the Palatine, as 

* Plin. H. N. xvii. i. t ix. i, 4. 

Suet. Nero, 2, § Smith's Diet, of Roman Biography. 

P 



204 WALKS IN ROME. 

well as his villas at Tusculum and Formia, and obliged 
Terentia to take refuge with the Vestals, whose Superior 
was fortunately her sister. But in the following year, a 
change of consuls and revulsion of the popular favour led 
to the recall of Cicero, who found part of his house appro- 
priated by Clodius, who had erected a shrine to Libertas 
(with a statue which was that of a Greek courtezan carried 
off from the tomb) ^ on the site of the remainder, which he 
had razed to the ground. t 

" Clodius had also destroyed the portico of Catulus ; in fact, he 
appears to have been desirous of appropriating all this side of the Pala- 
tine. He wanted to buy the house of the gedile Seius. Seius having 
declared that so long as he lived, Clodius should not have it, Clodius 
caused him to be poisoned, and then bought his house under a feigned 
name ! He was thus enabled to erect a portico three hundred feet in 
length, in place of that of Catulus. The latter, however, was after- 
wards restored at the public expense. 

" Cicero obtained public grants for the restoration of his house and of 
his Tusculan and Formian villas, but very far from enough to cover the 
losses he had suffered. The aristocratic part of the Senate appears to 
have envied and grudged the novus homa to whose abilities they looked 
for protection. He was advised not to rebuild his house on the Pala- 
tine, but to sell the ground. It was not in Cicero's temper to take such 
a coui-se ; but he was hampered ever after with debts. Clodius, who 
had been defeated but not beaten, still continued his persecutions. He 
organised a gang of street boys to call out under Cicero's windows, 
* Bread ! Bread ! ' His bands interrupted the dramatic performances 
on the Palatine, at the Megalesian games, by rushing upon the stage. 
On another occasion, Clodius, at the head of his myrmidons, besieged 
the Senate in the temple of Concord. He attacked Cicero in the streets, 
to the danger of his life ; and when he had begun to rebuild his house, 
drove away the masons, overthrew what part had been re-erected of 
Catulus' portico, and cast burning torches into the house of Quintus 
Cicero, which he had hired next to his brother's on the Palatine, and 
consumed a great part of it." — Dyers City of Rome, 152. 

The indemnity which Cicero received from the state in 
order to rebuild his house on the Palatine, amounted to 
about 16,000/. The house of Quintus Cicero was rebuilt 
close to his brother's at the same time by Cyrus, the fashion- 
able architect of the day. \ 

Among other noble householders on this part of the 
Palatine was Mark Antony, § whose house was aftenvards 

* ToUam altius tectum, non ut ego te despiciam, sed ne tu aspicias urbem earn, 
quam delere voluisti. — De Flarusp. Res. 15. 
t Cic. pro Dom. ad Pont. 42. 
X' Sec Ampere, Hist. Rom. iv. 528. § Dion Cass. liii. 27. 



HOUSE OF HORTENSIUS. 205 

given by Augustus to Agrippa and Messala, soon after 
which it was burnt down. 

A small Museum in this part of the garden contains some 
of the smaller objects which have been found in the excava- 
tions, and specimens of the different marbles and alabasters. 
There is nothing of any great importance. The fragments 
of statues and some busts which have been found (including 
Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian, and Julia, daughter 
of Titus), have been sent to Paris, but casts have been left 
here. 

We have now made the round of the French division of 
the Palatine. 



It has been decided that some remains which exist in the 
garden of the Villa Mills (now a Convent of Visitandine 
Nuns) are those of the House of Hortensius, an orator, 
" who was second only to Cicero in eloquence, and who, 
in the early part at least of their lives, was his chief 
opponent."* Cicero himself describes the extraordinary 
gifts of his rival t as well as the integrity with which he 
fulfilled the duties of a quaestor. J In the latter portion 
of his public career Hortensius was frequently engaged 
on the same side with Cicero, and then always recognised 
his superiority by allowing him to speak last. Hortensius 
died B.C. "50, to the great grief of his ancient rival, § The 
splendid villas of Hortensius were celebrated. He was 
accustomed to water his trees with wine at regular inter- 
vals, |1 and had huge fishponds at Bauli, into which the salt- 
water fish came to be fed from his hand, and he became 
so fond of them, that he wept for the death of a favourite 
mur9ena.1[ But the house on the Palatine was exceedingly 
simple and had no decorations but plain columns of Alban 
stone.** This was the chosen residence of Augustus, until, 
upon its destruction by fire, the citizens insisted upon raising 
the more sumptuous residence in the hollow of the Palatine 
by public subscription. The subterranean chambers which 
have been discovered have some interesting remains of 
stucco ornament. 

The villa, which is now turned into a convent, possessed 

* Dyer, p. 143. f Pro Quinet. i, 2, 22, 24, 26. \ Pro Verr. i. 14, 39, 

§ Ad Att. vi. 6. II Macrob. Saturn, ii. 9. 

H Varr. R. R. iii. 17 ; Pliny, H. N. ix. 55. ** Suet. Aug. 72. 



2o6 WALKS IN ROME. 

some frescoes painted by Giulio Romano from designs of 
Raphael, but these have been destroyed or removed in 
deference to the modesty of the present inhabitants. The 
neighbouring church and garden of S. Sebastiano occupy 
the site of the Gardens of Adonis. (See Chap. IV.) 



A large, and by far the most picturesque portion of the 
Palace of the Caesars (the only part which was not im- 
bedded in soil ten years ago), is now accessible either from 
the end of the lane of S. Buonaventura, or from a gate 
on the left of the Via del Fienili just before reaching Sta. 
Anastasia. The excavations in the last-named quarter were 
begun by the Emperor of Russia, who purchased the site, 
but afterwards presented it to the city. 

Behind Sta. Maria Liberatrice, in some farm buildings, 
are remains which probably belong to the Regia of Julius 
Caesar. 

Beyond this, against the escarpment of the Palatine, a part 
of the Walls of Romulus has been discovered, built in large 
oblong blocks. Here also are fragments of bases of towers 
of republican times. Behind S. Teodoro are remains of 
an early concrete wall, behind which the tufa rock is 
visible. The wall is only built where the tufa is of a soft 
character. 

" La systeme de construction est le meme que dans les villes d'Etrurie 
at dans la muraille batie a Rome par les rois etrusques. Cependant 
I'appareil est moins regulier. Les murs d'une petite ville du Latium 
fondee par un aventurier ne pouvaient etre aussi soignes que les murs 
des villes de TEirurie, pays tout autrement civilise. La petite cite de 
Romulus, bornee au Palatin, n'avait pas I'importance de la Rome des 
Tarquins, qui couvrait les huit coUines. 

"Du reste, la construction est etrusque et devait I'etre. Romulus 
n'avait dars sa ville, habitee par des patres et des bandits, personne qui 
fut capable d'en batir I'enceinte. Les Etrusques, grands batisseurs, etaient 
de I'autre cote du fleuve. Quelques-uns meme I'avaient probablement 
passe deja et babitaient le niont Coelius. Romulus dut s'adresser 
a eux, et faire faire cet ouvrage par des architects et des ma9ons 
etrusques. Ce fut aussi selon le rite de I'fitrurie, pays sacerdotal, que 
Romulus, suivant en cela I'usage etabli dans les cites latines, fit con- 
sacer I'enceinte de la ville nouvelle. II agit en cette circonstance 
comme agit un paysan romain, quand il appelle un pretre pour benir 
I'emplacement de la maison qu'il veut batir. 

" Les details de la cerenionie par laquelle fut inauguree la premiere 
enceinte de Rome nous ont ete transmis par Plutarque,* et, avec un 

• i'liit. Rotnu'. x\. 



WALLS OF ROMULUS,-^VIA NOVA. 207 

grand detail par Tacite, * qui sans doute avait sous les yeux les livres 
des pontifes. Nous connaissons avec exactitude le contour que tra^a la 
charrue sacree. Nous pouvons le suivre encore aujourd'hui. 

" Romulus attela an taureau blanc et une vache blanche a une charrue 
dont le soc etait d'airain.f L' usage de I'airain a precede a Pvome, 
comme partout, I'usage du fer. II partit du lieu consacre par I'antique 
autel d'Hercule, au-dessous de Tangle occidental du Palatin et de la 
premiere Rome des Pelasges, et, se dirigeant vers la sud~est, tra9a son 
sillon le long de la base de la colline. 

" Ceux qui suivaient Romulus, rejetaient les mottes de terre en 
dedans du sillon, image du Vallum futur. Ce sillon etait 1' Agger de 
Servius TuUius en petit. A I'extremite de la vallee qui separe le 
Palatin de 1' Aventin, oii devait etre le grand cirque, et oil est aujourd'hui 
la rue des Cerchi, il prit a gauche, et, contournant la colline, continua, 
en creusant toujours son sillon, a tracer sans le savoir la route que 
devaient suivre un jour les triomphes, puis revint au point d'oii il etait 
parti. La charrue, 1' instrument du labour, le symbole de la vie agricole 
des enfants de Saturne, avait dessine le contour de la cite guerriere de 
Romulus. De meme, quand on avait detruit une ville, on faisait passer 
la charrue sur le sol qu'elle avait occupe. Par la, ce sol devenait sacre, 
et il n' etait pas plus permis de I'habiter qu'il ne 1' etait de franchir le 
sillon qu'on creusait autour des villes lors de leur fondation, comme le 
fit Romulus et comme le firent toujours depuis les fondateurs d'une 
colonic; car toute colonic etait une Rome." — Ampere, Hist. J^o??ie, i. 283. 

Close under this, the northern side of the walls of 
Romulus, ran the Via Nova, down which Marcus Caedicius 
was returning to the city in the gloaming, when, at this spot, 
between the sacred grove and the temple of Vesta, he 
heard a supernatural voice, bidding him to warn the senate 
of the approach of the Gauls. After the Gauls had invaded 
Rome, and departed agahi, an altar and sanctuary recorded 
the miracle on this site. J 

At the corner near Sta. Anastasia, are remains of a 
private house of early times built against the cliff. Near 
this were the steps called the Stairs of Cacus, leading up to 
the hut of Faustulus. On the other side the Gradus Pulchri 
Littoris, the koXt) Aktt] of Plutarch, led to the river. § 

Here a remarkable altar of republican times has been dis- 
covered, and remains in situ. It is inscribed sei deo sei 

DIVAE SAC. — C SEXTIVS C T CALVINUS TR DE SENATI SEN- 

TENTiA RESTiTviT. Somc supposc this to be the actual 
altar mentioned above as erected to the Genius Loci, in con- 
sequence of the mysterious warning of the Gallic invasion. 
The father of the tribune, C. S. Calvinus, mentioned in the 

* Tac. Ann. xii. 24. f Prell. R. Myth. 436. 

i Cic. de Div. i. 45 ; Livy, v. 33. § Plat. J^ofu. So/. 2. 



2oS WALICS IN ROME. 

inscription, was consul with C. Cassius Longinus, B.C. 124, 
and is described by Cicero as an elegant orator of a sickly 
constitution.* 

Beyond this a number of chambers have been discovered 
under the steep bank of the Palatine, and retain a quantity 
oi graffitce scratched upon their walls. The most interesting 
of these, found in the fourth chamber, has been removed to 
the museum of the Collegio Romano. It is generally 
believed to have been executed during the reign of Sep- 
timius Severus, and to have been done in an idle mo- 
ment by one of the soldiers occupying these rooms, 
supposed to have been used as guard-chambers under that 
emperor. If so, it is perhaps the earliest existing pictorial 
allusion to the manner of our Saviour's death. It is a cari- 
cature evidently executed in ridicule of a Christian fellow- 
soldier. The figure on the cross has an ass's head, and by 
the worshipping figure is inscribed in Greek characters, 
Alexamenos worships his God. These chambers acquire a 
great additional interest from the belief which many enter- 
tain that they are those once occupied by the Praetorian 
Guard, in which St. Paul was confined. 

"The close of the Epistle to the Ephesians contains a remarkable 
example of the forcible imagery of St. Paul. Considered simply in 
itself, the description of the Christian's armour is one of the most 
striking passages in the sacred volume. But if we view it in connec- 
tion with the circumstances with which the Apostle was surrounded, we 
find a new and living emphasis in his enumeration of all the parts of 
the heavenly panoply,— the belt of sincerity and truth, with which the 
loins are girded for the spiritual war,— the breast-plate of that righteous- 
ness, the inseparable links whereof are faith and love, — the strong sandals, 
with which the feet of Christ's soldiers are made ready, not for such 
errands of death and despair as those on which the Praetorian soldiers 
were daily sent, but for the universal message of the gospel of peace, — 
the large shield of confident trust, wherewith the whole man is protected, 
and whereon the fiery arrows of the Wicked One fall harmless and dead, 
— the close-fitting helmet, with which the hope of salvation invests the 
head of the believer, — and finally the sword of the Spirit, the Word of 
God, which, when wielded by the Great Captain of our Salvation, 
turned the tempter in the wilderness to flight, while in the hands of His 
chosen Apostle (with whose memory the sword seems inseparably asso- 
ciated), it became the means of establishing Christianity on the earth. 

'' All this imagery becomes doubly forcible if we remember that 
when St. Paul wrote the words he was chained to a soldier, and in the 
close neighbourhood of military sights and sounds. The appearance 
of the Prxtorian Guards was daily familiar to him ; as his 'chains,' on 

* Cic. Brut. 34. 



THE PRISON OF ST. PAUL. 209 

the other hand (so he tells us in the succeeding Epistle], became well 
known throughout the whole Prcstorium I (Phil. i. I.3). A difference of 
opinion has existed as to the precise meaning of the word in this pas- 
sage. Some have identified it, as in the authorised version, with the 
house of Caesar on the Palatine : more commonly it has been supposed 
to mean that permanent camp of the Praetorian Guards, which Tiberius 
established on the north of the city, outside the walls. As regards the 
former opinion, it is true that the word came to be used, almost as we 
use the word 'palace,' for royal residences generally or for any resid- 
ences of princely splendour. Yet we never find the word employed 
for the imperial house at Rome : and we believe the truer view to be 
that which has been recently advocated, namely, that it denotes here, 
not the palace itself, but the quarters of that part of the imperial guards, 
which was in immediate attendance upon the emperor. The emperor 
was prcztor or commander-in-chief of the troops, and it was natural 
that his immediate guard should be in z. prcEtorium near him. It might, 
indeed, be argued that this military establishment on the Palatine 
would cease to be necessary, when the Praetorian camp was established : 
but the purpose of that establishment was to concentrate near the city 
those cohorts, which had previously been dispersed in other parts of 
Italy : a local body-guard near the palace would not cease to be neces- 
sary : and Josephus, in his account of the imprisonment of Agrippa, 
speaks of a 'camp' in connection with the ' royal house. ' Such we 
conceive to have been the barrack immediately alluded to by St. Paul : 
though the connection of these smaller quarters with the general camp 
was such that he would naturally become known to ' all the rest' of the 
guards, as well as those who might for the time be connected with the 
imperial household. 

" St. Paul tells us (in the Epistle to the Philippians) that throughout 
the Praetorian quarter he was well known as a prisoner for the cause of 
Christ, and he sends special salutations to the Philippian Church from 
the Christians of the imperial household. These notices bring before 
us very vividly the moral contrasts by which the Apostle was surrounded. 
The soldier to whom he was chained to-day might have been in Nero's 
body-guard yesterday ; his comrade who next relieved guaixl might have 
been one of the executioners of Octavia, and might have carried her 
head to Poppaea a few weeks before. 

"History has few stronger contrasts than when it shows us Paul 
preaching Christ under the walls of Nero's palace. Thenceforward 
there were but two religions in the Roman world ; the worship of the 
emperor, and the worship of the Saviour. The old superstitions had 
long been worn out ; they had lost all hold on educated minds. . . . 
Over against the altars of Nero and Poppaea, the voice of a prisoner 
was daily heard, and daily woke in grovelling souls the consciousness of 
their divine destiny. Men listened, and knew that self-sacrifice was 
better than ease, humiliation more exalted than pride, to suffer nobler 
than to reign. They felt that the only religion which satisfied the needs 
of man was the religion of sorrow, the religion of self-devotion, the 
religion of the cross." — Conybeare and Howson, 

Hence, we may ascend through some gardens beneath the 
Villa Mills, to the terrace which surmounts the grand ruins 



2 1 o WALKS IN ROME. 

at the end of the Palace of the Caesars, supposed to be re- 
mains of the Palace of Nero, but as no inscriptions have been 
discovered, no part of it can be identified.* These are by 
far the most picturesque portions of the ruins, and few com- 
positions can be finer than those formed by the huge masses 
of stately brick arches, laden with a wealth of laurustinus, 
cytizus, and other flowering shrubs, standing out against the 
soft hues and delicate blue and pink shadows of the distant 
Campagna. Beneath the terrace is a fine range of lofty 
chambers, with a broken statue at the end, through which 
there is a striking view. One of these ruined halls has 
been converted into a kind of museum of architectural 
fragments found in this part of the palace, many of them 
of great beauty. This was the portion of the palace which 
longest remained entire, and which was inhabited by Hera- 
clius in the seventh century. Some consider that these ruins 
were incorporated into the 

Septizoniiim of Severns, so called from its seven stories of 
building, erected a.d. 198, and finally destroyed by Sixtus V., 
who carried off its materials for the building of St. Peter's. 
It was erected by Severus at the southern corner of the 
palace, in order that it might at once strike the eyes of his 
African compatriots,t on their arrival in Rome. He built 
two other edifices which he called Septizonium, one on the 
Esquiline near the baths of Titus, and the other on the Via 
Appia, which he intended as the burial-place of his family, 
and where his son Geta was actually interred. 

The remaining ruins on this division of the hill, supposed 
to be those of a theatre, a library, &c., have not yet been 
historically identified. They probably belong to the Palace 
of Domitian (Imp. a.d. 81—96), who added largely to the 
buildings on the Palatine. The magnificence of his palace 
is extolled in the inflated verses of Statins, who describes 
the imperial dwelling as exciting the jealousy of the 
abode of Jupiter — as losing itself amongst the stars by its 
height, and rising above the clouds into the full splendour 
of the sunshine ! Such was the extravagance displayed by 
Domitian in these buildings, that Plutarch compares him to 
Midas, who wished everything to be made of gold. This 

* The Palace of Nero is described in Tacitus, Ann. xv. 42, and Suetonius, Ner. 31. 
t Septimiu£ Severus was born a.d. 146, near Leptis in Africa. Statius addresses 
a poem to one of his ancestors, Sept., Severus of Leptis. 



PALACE OF DOMITIAN. 2\i 

was the scene of many of the tyrannical vagaries of 
Domitian. 

" * Having once made a great feast for the citizens, he proposed,' says 
Dion, ' to follow it up with an entertainment to a select number of the 
highest nobility. He fitted up an apartment all in black. The ceiling 
was black, the walls were black, the pavement was black, and upon it 
were ranged rows of bare stone seats, black also. The guests were 
introduced at night without their attendants, and each might see at the 
head of his couch a column placed, like a tomb-stone, on which his 
own name was graven, with the cresset lamp above it, such as is sus- 
pended in the tombs. Presently there entered a troop of naked boys, 
blackened, who danced around with horrid movements, and then stood 
still before them, offering them the fragments of food which are com- 
monly presented to the dead. The guests were paralysed with terror, 
expecting at every moment to be put to death ; and the more, as the 
others maintained a deep silence, as though they were dead themselves, 
and Domitian spake of things pertaining to the state of the departed 
only.' But this funeral feast was not destined to end tragically. 
Caesar happened to be in a sportive mood, and when he had sufficiently 
enjoyed his jest, and had sent his visitors home expecting worse to 
follow, he bade each to be presented with the silver cup and platter on 
which his dismal supper had been served, and with the slave, now 
neatly washed and apparelled, who had waited upon him. Such, said 
the populace, was the way in which it pleased the emperor to solemnise 
the funereal banquet of the victims of his defeats in Dacia, and of his 
persecutions in the city." — Merivale, ch. Ixii, 

It was in this palace that the murder of Domitian took 
place : 

"Of the three great deities, the august assessors in the Capitol, 
Minerva was regarded by Domitian as his special patroness. Her 
image stood by his bedside : his customary oath was by her divinity. 
But now a dream apprised him that the guardian of his person was dis- 
armed by the guardian of the empire, and that Jupiter had forbidden 
his daughter to protect her favourite any longer. vScared by these 
horrors he lost all self-control, and petulantly cried, and the cry was 
itself a portent : ' Now strike Jove whom he will ! ' From supernatural 
terrors he reverted again and again to earthly fears and suspicions. 
Henceforward the tyrant allowed none to be admitted to his presence 
without being previously searched ; and he caused the ends of the cor- 
ridor in which he took exercise to be lined with polished marble, to 
reflect the image of any one behind him ; at the same time he inquired 
anxiously into the horoscope of every chief whom he might fear as a 
possible rival or successor. 

"The victim of superstition had long since, it was said, ascertained 
too surely the year, the day, the hour which should prove fatal to him. 

He had learnt too that he was to die by the sword The 

omens were now closing about the victim, and his terrors became more 
importunate and overwhelming. ' Something,' he exclaimed, Ms about 
to happen, which men shall talk of all the world over. ' Drawing a 
drop of blood from a pimple on his forehead, 'May this be all,' he 



212 WALKS IN ROME. 

added. His attendants, to reassure him, declared that the hour had 
passed. Embracing the flattering tale with alacrity, and rushing at 
once to the extreme of confidence, he announced that the danger was 
over, and that he would bathe and dress for the evening repast. But 
the danger was just then ripening within the walls of the palace. The 
mysteries there enacted few, indeed, could penetrate, and the account 
of Domitian's fall has been coloured by invention and fancy. The story 
that a child, whom he suffered to attend in his private chamber, found 
by chance the tablets which he had placed under his pillow, and that 
the empress, on inspecting them, and finding herself, with his most 
familiar servants, designated for execution, contrived a plot for his assassin- 
ation, is one so often repeated as to cause great suspicion. But neither 
can w^e accept the version of Philostratus, who would have us believe 
that the murder of Domitian was the deed of a single traitor, a freed- 
man of Clemens, named vStephanus, who, indignant at his patron's 
death, and urged to fury by the sentence on his patron's wife, Domitilla, 
rushed alone into the tyrant's cliamber, diverted his attention with a 
frivolous pretext, and smote him with the sword he bore concealed in 
his sleeve. It is more likely that the design, however it originated, was 
common to several of the household, and that means were taken among 
them to disarm the victim, and baffle his cries for assistance. Stephanus, 
who is said to have excelled in personal strength, may have been employed 
to deal the blow ; for not more, perhaps, than one attendant would be 
admitted at once into the presence. Struck in the groin, but not 
mortally, Domitian snatched at his own weapon, but found the sword 
removed from its scabbard. He then clutched the assassin's dagger, 
cutting his own fingers to the bone ; then desperately thrust the bloody 
talons into the eyes of his assailant, and beat his head with a golden 
goblet, shrieking all the time for help. Thereupon in mshed Par- 
thenius, Maximus, and others, and despatched him as he lay writhing 
on the pavement." — Merivale, ch. Ixii. 

Trajan stripped the palace of his predecessors of all its 
ornaments to adorn the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,* but 
it was restored by Commodus, after a fire which occurred 
in his reign, t and enriched by Heliogabalus,J and almost 
every succeeding emperor, till the time of Theodoric. § 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE CCELIAN. 



S. Gregorio — S. Giovanni e Paolo — Arch of Dolabella — S. Tommaso 
in Formis — Villa Mattel — Sta. Maria della Navicella — S. Stefano 
Rotondo — I Santi Quattro Incoronati — S. Clemente. 

* Martial, xii. Ep. 75. t Dion Cass. Commod. 

\ Lamprid. Elagab. 8. § Cassiod. vii. 5. 



THE CCELIAN. 213 

THE Coelian Hill extends from St. John Lateran to the 
Vigna of the Porta Capena, and from the Grotto of 
Egeria to the Convent of S. Gregorio. It is now entirely 
uninhabited, except by monks of the Camaldolese, Passionist, 
and Redemptorist Orders, and by the Augustinian Nuns of 
the Incoronati. 

In the earliest times the name of this hill was Mons 
Querquetulanus, " The Hill of Oaks," and it was clothed with 
forest, part of which long remained as the sacred wood of the 
Camenae. It first received its name of Coelius from CoeHus 
Vibenna, an Etruscan Lucumo of Ardea, who is said to 
have come to the assistance of Romulus in his war against 
the Sabine king Tatius, and to have afterwards estab- 
lished himself here. In the reign of Tullus Hostilius the 
Coelian assumed some importance, as that king fixed his 
residence here, and transported hither the Latin population 
of Alba. 

As the Coelian had a less prominent share in the history 
of Rome than any of the other hills, it preserves scarcely 
any historical monuments of pagan times. All those which 
existed under the republic were destroyed by a great fire 
which ravaged this hill in the reign of Tiberius,* except the 
Temple of the Nymphs, which once stood in the grove of 
the Camenae, and which had been already burnt by Clodius, 
in order to destroy the records of his falsehoods and debts 
which it contained.t Some small remains in the garden 
of the Passionist convent are attributed to the temple 
which Agrippina raised to her husband the Emperor 
Claudius, and in S. Stefano Rotondo some antiquaries 
recognize the Macellum of Nero. There are no remains 
of the palace of the Emperor Tetricus, who lived here, 
" between the two sacred groves," f in a magnificent cap- 
tivity under Aurelian, whom he received here at a banquet, 
at which he exhibited an allegorical picture representing 
his reception of the empire of Gaul, and his subsequent 
resignation of it for the simple insignia of a Roman 
senator. § 

To the Christian visitor, however, the Coelian will always 
prove of the deepest interest — and the slight thread of con- 
nection which runs between all its principal objects, as well 

* Dyer's Rome, p. 223. t Amp&re, Hist. Rom. iv. 460. 

t 1 rebellius PoUio. § Gibbon, v. i. 



214 WALKS IN ROME. 

as their nearness to one another, brings them pleasantly 
within the Hmits of a single day's excursion. Many of those 
who are not mere passing visitors at Rome, will probably 
find that their chief pleasure lies not amid the well-known 
sights of the great basiHcas and palaces, but in quiet walks 
through the silent lanes and amid the decaying buildings 
of these more distant hills. 

" The recollection of Rome will come back, after many years, in 
images of long delicious strolls, in musing loneliness, through the 
deserted ways of the ancient city ; of climbing amoiTg its hills, over 
ruins, to reach some vantage-ground for mapping out the subjacent terri- 
tory, and looking beyond on the glorious chains of greater and lesser 
mountains, clad in their imperial hues of gold and purple ; and then, 
perhaps, of solemn entrance into the cool solitude of an open basilica, 
where your thought now rests, as your body then did, after the silent 
evening prayer, and brings forward from many well -remembered nooks, 
every local inscription, every lovely monument of art, the characteristic 
feature of each, or the great names with which it is associated. The 
Liberian speaks to you of Bethlehem and its treasured mysteries ; the 
Sessorian of Calvary and its touching relics. Baronius gives you his 
injunctions on Christian architecture inscribed, as a legacy, in his title of 
Fasciola ; St. Dominic lives in the fresh paintings of a faithful disciple, 
on the walls of the opposite church of St. Xystus ; there stands the 
chair and there hangs the hat of St. Charles, as if he had just left his 
own church, from which he calls himself in his signature to letters ' the 
Cardinal of St. Praxedes ; ' near it, in a sister church, is fresh the 
memory of St. Justin Martyr, addressing his apologies for Christianity to 
heathen emperor and senate, and of Pudens and his British spouse ; 
and, far beyond the city gates, the cheerful Philip * is seen kneeling at 
S. Sebastiano, waiting for the door to the Platonia to be opened for 
him, that he may watch the night through in the martyr's dormitory." 
— lVisema7i's Life of Leo XLL. 

" For myself I must say that I know nothing to compare with a 
pilgrimage among the antique churches scattered over the Esquiline, the 
Coelian, and the Aventine Hills. They stand apart, each in its solitude, 
amid gardens, and vineyards, and heaps of nameless ruins ; — here a 
group of cypresses, there a lofty pine or solitary palm ; the tutelary 
saint, perhaps some Sant' Achilleo, or Santa Bibiana, whom we never 
heard of before, — an altar rich in precious marbles, — columns of por- 
phyry, — the old frescoes dropping from the walls, — the everlasting 
colossal mosaics looking down so solemn, so dim, so spectral; — these 
grow upon us, until at each succeeding visit they themselves, and the 
associations by which they are surrounded, become a part of our daily 
life, and may be said to hallow that daily life when considered in a 
right spirit. True, what is most sacred, what is most poetical, is often 
desecrated to the fancy by the intrusion of those prosaic realities which 
easily strike prosaic minds ; by disgust at the foolish fabrications which 
those who recite them do not believe, by lying inscriptions, by tawdry 

♦ S. Filippo Neri. 



PARCO DI S. GREGORIO. 215 

pictures, by tasteless and even profane restorations ; — by much that 
saddens, much that offends, much that disappoints ; — but then so much 
remains ! So much to awaken, to elevate, to touch the heart ; so n luch 
that will not pass away from the memory, so much that makes a part of 
our after-life." — Mrs. Jameson. 



We may pass under the Arch of Constantine, or through 
the pleasant sunny walks known as the Parco di Saft Gre- 
gorio, — planted by the French during their first occupation 
of Rome, but which may almost be regarded as a remnant 
of the sacred grove of the Camen^ which once occupied 
this site. 

The further gate of the Parco opens on a small triangular 
piazza, whence a broad flight of steps lead up to the Church 
of S. Gregorw, to the EngHsh pilgrim one of the most inter- 
esting spots in Rome, for it was at the head of these steps 
that St. Augustine took his last farewell of Gregory the 
Great, and, kneeling on this green-sward below, the first mis- 
sionaries of England received the parting blessing of the 
great pontiff, as he stood on the height in the gateway. As 
we enter the portico (built 1633, by Card. Scipio Borghese,) 
we see on either side two world-famous inscriptions. 

On the right : 

Adsta hospes 

et lege. 

Hie olim fuit M. Gregori domus 

Ipse in monasterium convertit, 

Ubi monasticen professus est 

Et diu abbas prsefuit. 

Monachi primum Benedictini 

Mox Graeci tenuere 

Dein Benedictini iterum 

Post varios casos 

Quum jamdiu 

Esset commendatum 

Et poene desertum. 

Anno MDLXXiii 

Camaldulenses inducti 

Qui et industria sua 

Et ope plurium 

R. E. Cardinalium 

Quorum hie monumenta exstant, 

Favente etiam Clemente XI. P. M. 

Templum et adjacentes asdes 

In hanc quam cernis formam 

Restituerunt. 



2i6 WALKS IN ROME. 

On the left : 

Ex hoc monasterio 
Prodierunt. 
S. Gregorius, M. Fundator et Parens 
S. Eleutherius, A.B. Hilarion, A.B. 
S. Augustinus. Anglor. Apostol. 
S. Laurentius. Cantuar. Archiep. 
S. Mellitus. Londinen. Ep. mox. 

Archiep. Cantuar. 
S. Justus. Ep. Roffensis. 
S. Paulinus. Ep. Eborac. 
S. Maximianus. Syracusan. Ep. 
SS. Antonius, Meruhis, et Joannes, Monachi. 
St. Petrus. A.B. Cantuar. 

Marinianus. Archiep. Raven. 
Probus. Xenodochi. Jerosolymit. 
Curator. A. S. Gregori. Elect. 
Sabinus Callipodit. Ep. 
Gregorius. Diac. Card. S. Eustach. 
Hie . Etiam . Diu . Vixit . M. Gregori 
Mater . S. Silvia . Hoc . Maxime 
Colenda . Quod . Tantum . Pietatis 
Sapientiee . Et . Doctrince . Lumen 
Pepererit. 

" Cette ville incomparable renferme peu de sites plus attrayants et plus 
dignes d'eternelle memoire. Le sanctuaire occupe Tangle occidental du 
niont Coelius. . . II est a egale distance du grand Cirque, des 
Thermes de Caracalla et du Colisee, tout proche de I'eglise des saints 
martyrs Jean et Paul. Le berceau du christianisme de I'Angleterre 
touche ainsi au sol tiempe par le sang de tant de milliers de martyrs. En 
face s'eleve le mont Palatin, berceau de Rome paienne, encore convert 
des vastes debris du palais des Cesars. . . . Oil est done 1' Anglais 
digne de ce nom qui, en portant son regard du Palatin au Colisee, 
pourrait contempler sans emotion ce coin de terre d'oii lui sont 
venus la foi, le nomchretien et la Bible dont il est si fier. Voila ou les 
enfants esclaves de ses aieux etaient recueillis et sauves ! Sur ces pierres 
s'agenouillaieut ceux qui out fiiit sa patiie chretienne ! Sous ces voiites a 
ete con9u par une ame samte, confie a Dieu, beni par Dieu. accepte et 
accompli par d'humbles et genereux Chretiens, le grand dessein ! Par ces 
degres sont descendus les quarantejiioines qui ont porte a 1' Angleterre la 
parole de Dieu, la lumiere de I'Evangile, la succession apostolique et 
la regie de Saint-Benoit I " — Montalembert^ Moines (f Occident. 

Hard by was the house of Sta. Silvia, mother of St. 
Gregory, of which the ruins still remain, opposite to the 
church of S. Giovanni e Paolo, and in the little garden 
which still exists, we may believe that he played as a child 
under his mother's care. Close to his mother's home he 
founded the monastery of St. Andrew, where he dwelt for 
many }cars as a monk, employed in wnting homilies, and in 



S. GREGORIO. 217 

the enjoyment of visionary conversation with the Virgin, 
v.'hom he beheved to answer him in person from her pic- 
ture before which he knelt. " To this monastery he pre- 
sented his own portrait, with those of his father and mother, 
which were probably in existence 300 years after his death ; 
and this portrait of himself probably furnished that peculiar 
type of physiognomy which we trace in all the best repre- 
sentations of him." '^ During the life of penance and poverty 
which was led here by St. Gregory, he sold all his goods for 
the benefit of the poor, retaining nothing but a silver bason 
given him by his mother. One day a poor ship\\Tecked 
sailor came several times to beg in the cell where he was 
writing, and as he had no money, he gave him instead this 
one remaining treasure. A long time after, St. Gregory saw 
the same shipwrecked sailor reappear in the form of his 
guardian angel, who told him that God had henceforth 
destined him to rule his church, and become the successor 
of St. Peter, whose charity he had imitated, f 

*'Un moine (a.d. 590) va monter pour la premiere fois sur la chaire 
apostolique. Ce moine, le plus illustre de tous ceux qui ont compte 
parmi les souverains pontifes, y rayonnera d'un eclat qu'aucun de ses 
predecesseurs n'a egale et qui rejaillera comme une sanction supreme, sur 
I'institut dont il est issu. Gregoire, le seul parmi les hommes avec le Papa 
Leon i^"^ qui ait re9u a la fois, du consentement universel, le double sur- 
nom de Saint et de Grand, sera I'eternel honneur de TOrdre benedictin 
comme de la papaute. Par son genie, mais surtout par le charme et 
I'ascendant de sa vertu, il organisera le domaine temporel des papes, il 
developpera et regularisera leur souverainete spirituelle, il fondera leur 
paternelle suprematie sur les royautes naissantes et les nations nouvelles 
qui vont devenir les grands peuples de I'avenir, et s'appeler la France, 
I'Espagne, I'Angleterre. A vrai dire, c'est lui qui inaugure le moyen 
age, la societe moderne et la civilisation chretienne." — Mojitalembert. 

The church of St. Gregory is approached by a cloistered 
court filled with monuments. On the left is that of Sir 
Edward Carne, one of the commissioners to obtain the 
opinion of foreign universities respecting the divorce of 
Henry VIII. from Catherine of Arragon, ambassador to 
Charles V., and afterwards to the court of Rome. He was 
recalled when the embassy was suppressed by Elizabeth, 
but was kept at Rome by Paul IV., who had conceived a 
great affection for him, and he died here in 1561. Another 
mommient, of an exile for the catholic faith, is that of 
Robert Pecham, who died 1567, inscribed : 

* Mrs. Jameson. f Montalembert, Moines d'Occident. 



2i8 WALKS IN ROME. 

" Roberto Pecham Anglo, equite aurato, Philippi et Marias AngUse 
et Hispan regibus olim a consiliis genere religione virtute praeclaro qui 
cum patriam suam a fede catholica deficientem adspicere sine sunamo 
dolore non posset, relictis omnibus quae in hac vita carissima esse sclent, 
in voluntarium profectus exilium, post sex anrts pauperibus Christi 
heredibus testamento institutis, sanctissime e vita migravit. " 

The Church, rebuilt in 1734, under Francesco Ferrari, 
has sixteen ancient granite columns and a fine Opus-Alex- 
andrinum pavement. Among its monuments we may 
observe that of Cardinal Zurla, a learned writer on geo- 
graphical subjects, who was abbot of the adjoining convent. 
It was a curious characteristic of the laxity of morals in the 
time of Julius II. (1503-13), that her friends did not hesitate 
to bury the famous Aspasia of that age in this church, and 
to inscribe upon her tomb: " Imperia, cortisana Romana, 
quae digna tanto nomine, rarse inter homines formse speci- 
men dedit. Vixit annos xxvi. dies xii. obiit 15 n, die 15 
Augusti," — but this monument has now been removed. 

At the end of the right aisle is a picture by Badalocchi, 
commemorating a miracle on this spot, when, at the moment 
of elevation, the Host is said to have bled in the hands of 
St. Gregory, to convince an unbeliever of the truth of tran- 
substantiation. It will be observed that in this and in most 
other representations of St. Gregory, a dove is perched upon 
his shoulder, and whispering into his ear. This is comme- 
morative of the impression that every word and act of the 
saint was directly inspired by the Holy Ghost ; a belief first 
engendered by the happy promptitude of Peter, his arch- 
deacon, who invented the story to save the beloved library 
of his master which was about to be destroyed after his 
death by the people, in a pitiful spirit of revenge, because 
they fancied that a famine which was decimating them, 
had been brought about by the extravagance of Gregory.* 
An altar beneath this picture is decorated with marble 
reliefs, representing the same miracle, and also the story of 
the soul of the Emperor Trajan being freed from purgatory 
by the intercession of Gregory. (Chap. IV.) 

A low door near this leads into the monastic cell of St. 
Gregory, containing his marble chair, and the spot where 
his bed lay, inscribed : 

*' Nocte dieque vigil longo hie defessu labore 
Gregorius modica membra quiete levat." 

• Milman's Latin Cliristianity, vol. xr. 



S. GR EGO RIO. 219 

Here also an immense collection of minute relics of saints 
are exposed to the veneration of the credulous. 

On the opposite side of the church is the Salviati Chapel, 
the burial-place of that noble family, modernized in 1690 
by Carlo Maderno. Over the altar is a copy of Annibale 
Caracci's picture of St. Gregory, which once existed here, 
but is now in England. On the right is the picture of the 
Madonna, " which spoke to St. Gregory," and which is said 
to have become suddenly impressed upon the wall after a 
vision in which she appeared to him ; — on the left is a beau- 
tiful marble ciborium. 

Hence a sacristan will admit the visitor into the Garden 
of Sfa. Silvia, whence there is a grand view over the op- 
posite Palatine. 

" To stand here on the summit of the flight of steps which leads 
to the portal, and look across to the ruined Palace of the Csesars, 
makes the mind giddy with the rush of thoughts. There, before us, 
the Palatine Hill — pagan Rome in the dust ; here, the little cell, a 
fcAv feet square, where slept in sackcloth the man who gave the last 
blow to the power of the Caesars, and first set his foot as sovereign 
on the cradle and capital of their greatness." — Mrs. Jameson. 

Here are three Chapels, restored by the historian Car- 
dinal Baronius, in the sixteenth century. The first, oi Sfa. 
Silvia, contains a fresco of the Almighty with a choir of 
angels, by Gtndo, and beneath it a beautiful statue of the 
venerable saint (especially invoked against convulsions), 
by Niccolo Cordieri — one of the best statues of saints 
in Rome. The second chapel, of St. Andrew, contains 
the two famous rival frescoes of Guido and Domefiichino. 
Guido has represented St. Andrew kneeling in reverent 
thankfulness at first sight of the cross on which he was 
to suffer ; Domenichino — a more painful subject — the 
flagellation of the saint. Of these paintings Annibale 
Caracci observed that " Guido's was the painting of the 
Master; but Domenichino's the painting of the scholar 
who knew more than the master." The beautiful group 
of figures in the corner, where a terrified child is hiding 
its face in its mother's dress, is introduced in several other 
pictures of Domenichino. 

" It is a well-known anecdote that a poor old woman stood for a long 
time before the story of Domenichino, pointing it out bit by bit and 
explaining it to a child who was with her, — and that she then turned to 
the story told by Guido, admired the landscape, and went away. It U 

Q 



220 WALKS IN ROME. 

added that when Annibale Caracci heard of this, it seemed to him in 
itself a sufficient reason for giving the preference to the former work. 
It is also said that when Domenichino was painting one of the execu- 
tioners, he worked himself up into a fury with threatening words and 
gestures, and that Annibale, surprising him in this condition, embraced 
him, saying : ' Domenico, to-day you have taught me a lesson, which is 
that a painter, like an orator, must first feel himself that whi«h he would 
represent to others.' " — Lanzi, v. 82, 

" In historical pictures Domenichino is often cold and studied, espe- 
cially in the principal subject, while on the other hand, the subordinate 
persons have much grace, and a noble character of beauty. Thus, in 
the scourging of St. Andrew, a group of women thrust back by the 
executioners is of the highest beauty. Guido's fresco is of high merit — 
St. Andrew, on his way to execution, sees the cross before him in the 
distance, and falls upon his knees in adoration, — the executioners and 
spectators regard him with astonishment." — Ktigler. 

The third chapel, of Sta. Barbara^ contains a grand statue 
of St. Gregory by Niccolo Cordieri* (where the "whispering 
dove is again represented), and the table at which he daily 
fed twelve poor pilgrims after washing their feet. The 
Roman breviary tells how on one occasion an angel ap- 
peared at the feast as the thirteenth guest. This story, 
— the sending forth of St. Augustine, — and other events of 
St. Gregory's life, are represented in rude frescoes upon the 
walls by Viviatii. 

The adjoining Convetit (modern) is of vast size, and is 
now occupied by Camaldolese monks, though in the time 
of St. Gregory it belonged to the Benedictines. In its 
situation it is beautiful and quiet, and must have been 
so even in the time of St. Gregory, who often regretted 
the seclusion which he was compelled to quit. 

*' Un jour, plus accable que jamais par le poids des affaires seculieres, 
il s'etait retire dans un lieu secret pour s'y livrer dans un long silence a 
sa tristesse, et y fut rejoint par le diacre Pierre, son eleve, son ami 
d'enfance et le compagnon de ses cheres etudes. ' Vous est-il done 
arrive quelque chagrin nouveau,' lui dit le jeune homme, 'pour que 
vous soyez ainsi plus triste qu'a I'ordinaire. ' ' Mon chagrin,' lui re- 
pondit le pontife, 'est celui de tous mes jours, toujours vieux par I'usage, 
et toujours nouveau par sa croissance quotidienne. Ma pauvre ame se 
rappelle ce qu'elle etait autrefois, dans notre monastere, quand elle planait 
sur tout ce qui passe, sur tout ce qui change ; quand elle ne songeait 
qu'au ciel ; quand elle franchissait par la contemplation le cloitre de ce 
corps qui I'enserre ; quand elle aimait d'avance la mort comme I'entree 
de la vie. Et maintenant il lui faut, a cause de ma charge pastorale, 

• Rome possesses al least eight fine modern statt.es of saints : — besides those of Sta. 
Silvia and St. Gregory, are the Sta. Agnese of Algardi, the Sta. Bibiana of Bernini, 
the Sta. Cecilia of I^loderiio, the Sta. Susanna of Quesnoy, the Sta. Martina of 
Menghino, and the S. Bruno of Houdon. 



CONVENT OF S. GREGG RIO. 221 

supporter les mille affaires des hommes du siecle et se souiller dans cette 
poussiere. Et quand, apres s'etre ainsi repandue au dehors, elle veut 
retrouver sa retraite interieure, elle n'y revient qu'amoindrie. Je medite 
sur tout ce que je souffre et sur tout ce que j'ai perdu Me voici, battu 
par I'ocean et tout brise par la tempete ; quand je pense a ma vie 
d'autrefois, il me semble regarder en arriere vers le rivage. Et ce 
qu'il y a de plus triste, c'est qu'ainsi ballotte par I'orage, je puis 
a peine entrevoir le port que j'ai quitte.' " — Montalemberi, Moines 
cT Occident. 

Pope Gregory XVI. was for some years abbot of this 
convent, to which he was afterwards a generous benefactor ; 
• — regretting always, like his great predecessor, the peace of 
his monastic Hfe. His last words to his cardinals, who were 
imploring him, for political purposes, to conceal his danger, 
were singularly expressive of this — " Per Dio lasciatemi ! — 
voglio morire da frate, non da sovrano." The last great 
ceremony enacted at S. Gregorio was when Cardinal Wise- 
man consecrated the mitred abbot of English Cistercians, 
— Dr. Manning preaching at the same time on the prospects 
of English Catholicism. 

Ascending the steep paved lane between S. Gregorio 
and the Parco, the picturesque church on the left with the 
arcaded apse and tall campanile {c. a.d. 1206), inlaid with 
coloured tiles and marbles, is that of 6*6'. Giovanni e Paolo, 
two officers in the household of the Christian princess 
Constantia, daughter of the Emperor Constantine, in whose 
time they occupied a position of great influence and 
tmst. When Julian the Apostate came to the throne, he 
attempted to persuade them to sacrifice to idols, but they 
refused, saying, " Our lives are at the disposal of the 
emperor, but our souls and our faith belong to our God." 
Then Julian, fearing to bring them to public martyrdom, lest 
their popularity should cause a rebelUon and the example 
of their well-known fortitude be an encouragement to others, 
sent off soldiers to behead them privately in their own 
house. Hence the inscription on the spot, " Locus martyrii 
SS. Joannis et Paoli in aedibus propriis." The church was 
built by Pammachus, the friend of St. Jerome, on the site 
of the house of the saints. It is entered by a portico 
adorned with eight ancient granite columns, interesting as 
having been erected by the English pope, Nicholas Break- 
spear, A.D. 1 1 58. The interior, in the basilica form, has 
sixteen ancient columns and a beautiful Opus-Alexan- 



222 WALIfS IN ROME. 

drinum pavement. In the centre of the floor is a stone, 
railed off, upon which it is said that the saints were be- 
headed. Their bodies are contained in a porphyry urn 
under the high altar. In early times these were the only 
bodies of saints preserved v/ithin the walls of Rome (the 
rest being in the catacombs). In the Sacramentary of St. 
Leo, in the Preface of SS. John and Paul, it is said, "Of 
Thy merciful providence Thou hast vouchsafed to crown 
not only the circuit of the city with the glorious passions 
of the martyrs, but also to hide in the very heart of the 
city itself the victorious limbs of St. John and St. Paul."* 

Above the tribune are frescoes by Pomerancio. A 
splendid chapel on the right was built 1868 ; — two of its 
alabaster pillars were the gift of Pius IX. Beneath the 
altar on the left of the tribune is preserved the embalmed 
body of St. Paul of the Cross (who died 1776), founder of 
the Order of Passionists, who inhabit the adjoining con- 
vent. The aged face bears a beautiful expression of 
repose ; — the body is dressed in the robe which clothed it 
when living, t 

Male visitors are admitted through the convent to its 
large and beautiful Garden^ which overhangs the steep 
side of the Coelian towards the Coliseum, of which there 
is a fine view between its ancient cypresses. Here, on 
a site near the monastery, are some remains believed to 
be those of the temple built by Agrippina {c. a.d. 57), 
daughter of Germanicus, to the honour of her deified 
husband (and uncle) Claudius, after she had sent him 
to Olympus by feeding him with poisonous mushrooms. 
This temple was pulled down by Nero, who wished to 
efface the memory of his predecessor, on the pretext that 
it interfered with his Golden House ; but was rebuilt under 
Vespasian. In this garden also is the entrance to the vast 
substructions known as the Vivariu7?i, whence the wild 
beasts who devoured the early Christian martyrs were 
frightened by burning tow down a subterranean passage 
into the arena. 

The famous Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice 

* See Roma Sotterranea, p. 106. 

t " Deus, qui sanctum Joannem confessorem tuum perfectse suae abnegationis, et 
crucis amatorem eximium efficisti, concede ; ut ejus imitationi jugiter inhaerentes, 
gloriam asaequaraur aetemam." — Collect 0/ St. John of the Cross, Roman Vesper- 
Book. 



SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO, 223 

was founded by emigrants from this convent. The memory 
of these saints was so much honoured up to the time of 
Pope Gregory the Great, that the eve of their festival was 
an obUgatory fast. Their fete (June 26) is still kept with 
great solemnities on the Coelian, when the railing round 
their place of execution is wreathed and laden with flowers. 
When the "station" is held at their church, the apse is 
illuminated. 

Continuing to follow the lane up the Coelian, we reach 
the richly tinted brick Arch of Dolabella^ erected, a.d. 10, 
by the consuls P. Cornelius Dolabella and Caius Julius 
Silanus. Nero, building his aqueduct to the palace of the 
Caesars, made use of this, which already existed, and in- 
cluded it m his line of arches. 

Above the arch is a Hermitage, revered as that where 
S. Giovanni di Matha lived, and where he died in 12 13. 
Before he came to reside here he had been miracuously 
brought from Tunis (whither he had gone on a mission) 
to Ostia, in a boat without helm or sail, in which he 
knelt without ceasing before the crucifix throughout the 
whole of his voyage ! 

Passing beneath the gateway, we emerge upon the 
picturesque irregular Piazza of the Navicella, the central 
point of the Coelian, which is surrounded by a most inter- 
esting group of buildings, and which contains an isolated 
fragment of the aqueduct of Nero, dear to artists from 
its colour. Behind this, under the trees, is the little 
marble Navicella, which is supposed to have been origin- 
ally a votive offering of a sailor to Jupiter Redux, 
whose temple stood near this ; but which was adapted by 
Leo X. as a Christian emblem of the Church, — the boat of 
St. Peter. 

** The allegory of a ship is peculiarly dwelt upon by the ancient 
Fathers- A ship entering the port was a favourite heathen emblem of the 
close of life. But the Christian idea, and its elevation from individual 
to universal or catholic humanity, is derived directly from the Bible, — 
see, for instance, I Peter iii. 20, 21. ' Without doubt,' says St. Augus- 
tine, * the ark is the figure of the city of God pilgrimising in this world, 
in other words, of the Church, which is saved by the wood on which 
hung the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.' The 
same interpretation was recognised in the Latin Church in the days of 
Tertullian and St. Cyprian, &c. The bark of St. Peter is similarly repre- 
sented on a Greek gem, found in the Catacombs, as sailing on a fish, 
probably Leviathan or Satan, while doves, emblematical of the faithful, 



224 WALKS IN ROME. 

perch on the mast and stern, — two Apostles row, a third lifts ^x\ his hands 
in prayer, and our Saviour, approaching the vessel, supports Ptter by the 

hand when about to sink But the allegory of the ship is carried 

out to its fullest extent in the fifty-seventh chapter of the second book of 
the 'Apostolical Constitutions,' supposed to have been compiled in the 
name of the Apostles, in the fourth centur}^ " — Lord Lindsay's Christian 
Art, i. i8. 

On tjie right is (first) the gateway of the deserted con- 
vent of Redemptorists, called ^S". Tommaso in Formis^ which 
was founded by S. Giovanni de Matha, who, when cele- 
brating his first mass at Paris, beheld in a vision, an angel 
robed in white, with a red and blue cross upon his breast, 
and his hands resting in benediction upon the heads of 
two captives, — a white and a black man. The bishop of 
Paris sent him to Rome to seek explanation from Innocent 
III., who was celebrated as an interpreter of dreams, — his 
foundation of the Franciscan order having resulted from 
one which befell him. S. Giovanni was accompanied to 
the pope by another hermit, Felix de Valois. They found 
that Innocent had himself seen the same vision of the 
angel between the two captives while celebrating mass at 
the Lateran, and he interpreted it as inculcating the duty 
of charity towards Christian slaves, for which purpose he 
founded the Trinitarians, since called Redemptorists. The 
story of the double vision is commemorated in a Mosaic, 
erected above the door, a.d. 1260, and bearing the name 
of the artist, Jacobus Cosmati. 

The next gate beyond the church is that of the Villa 
Mattel, the garden of the Redemptorists. (An order to 
enter must be obtained from Cav. Forti, 47 Longara, about 

I P.M.) 

These grounds are well worth visiting — quite the ideal of 
a deserted Roman garden, a wealth of large Roman daisies, 
roses, and periwinkle spreading at will amid remains of 
ancient statues and columns. A grand little avenue of ilexes 
leads to a terrace whence there is a most beautiful view 
towards the aqueducts and the Alban Hills, with a noble 
sarcophagus and a quantity of fine aloes and prickly-pears 
in the foreground. There is an obelisk, of which only the 
top is Egyptian. It is said that there is a man's hand 
underneath ; — when the obeHsk was lowered it fell sud- 
denly, and one of the workmen had not time to take his 
hand away. 



STA. MARIA IN DOMENICA. 12% 

Almost standing in the garden of the villa, and occupying 
the site of the house of Sta. Cyriaca, is the Church of Sta. 
Maria in Domenica or della Navicella. (If no one is here, 
the hermit at S. Stefano Rotondo will unlock it.) The 
unremarkable portico is attributed to Michael Angelo. 
The damp interior (rebuilt by Leo X. from designs of 
Raphael) is solemn and striking. It is in the basilica form, 
the nave separated from the aisles by eighteen columns of 
granite and one (smaller, near the tribune) of porphyry. 
The frieze, in chiaroscuro, was painted by Giiilio Romaiio 
and Pieriiio del Vaga. Beneath the confessional are the 
bones of Sta. Balbina, whose fortress-like church stands on 
the Pseudo-Aventine. In the tribune are curious mosaics, 
in which the figure of Pope Paschal I. is introduced, the 
square nimbus round his head being an evidence of its 
portrait character, i. e., that it was done during his lifetime.* 

" Within the tribune are mosaics of the Virgin and Child seated on 
a throne, with angels ranged in regiilar rows on each side ; and, at her 
feet, with unspeakable stiffness of limb, the kneeling figure of Pope 
Paschal I. Upon the walls of the tribune is the Saviour with a nimbus, 
surrounded with two angels and the twelve apostles, and further below, 
on a much larger scale, two prophets, who appear to point towards him. 
The most remarkable thing here is the rich foliage decoration. Besides 
the wreaths of flowers (otherwise not a rare feature) which are growing 
out of two vessels on the edge of the dome, the floor beneath the figures 
is also decorated with flowers — a graceful species of ornament seldom 
aimed at in the moroseness of Byzantine art. From this point, the 
decline into utter barbarism is rapid."' — Kiigler. 

"The Olivetan monks inhabited the church and cloisters of Sea. 
Maria in Domenica, commonly called in Navicella, from the rudely 
sculptured marble monument that stands on the grass before its portal, 
a remnant of bygone days, to which neither history nor tradition has 
given a name, but which has itself given one to the picturesque old 
church which stands on the brow of the Coelian Hill." — Lady Georgiana 
Ftdlertoii, 

A tradition of the Church narrates that St. Lorenzo, 
deacon and martyr, daily distributed alms to the poor in 
front of this church — then the house of Sta. Cyriaca — with 
whom he had taken refuge. 

Opposite, is the round Church af S, Stefano Rotondo, 
dedicated by St. Simplicius in 467. It appears to have 
been built on the site of an ancient circular build- 
ing, and to have belonged to the great victual market — 

* A square nimbus indicates that a portrait was executed before, a round after 
the death of the person represented. 



226 



WALK'S m ROME, 



Macellum Magnum — erected by Nero in this quarter.* It 
is seldom used for service, except on St. Stephen's Day 
(December 26), but visitors are admitted through a Uttle 
cloister, in which stands a well of beautiful proportions, of 
temp. Leo X. — attributed to Michael Angelo. The interior 
is exceedingly curious architecturally. It is one hundred 
and thirty-three feet in diameter, with a double circle of 
granite columns, thirty-six in the outer and twenty in the 
inner series, enclosing two tall Corinthian columns, with two 
pilasters supporting a cross wall. In the centre is a kind 
of temple in which are relics of St. Stephen (his body is 
said to be at S. Lorenzo). In the entrance of the church 
is an ancient marble seat from which St. Gregory is said to 
have read his fourth homily. 

The walls are lined with frescoes by Pojnerancio and 
Tempesta. They begin with the Crucifixion, but as the 
Holy Innocents really suffered before our Saviour, one of 
them is represented lying on each side of the cross. Next 
comes the stoning of St. Stephen, and the frescoes con- 
tinue to pourtray every phase of human agony in the most 
revolting detail, but are interesting as showing a historical 
series of what the Roman Catholic Church considers as the 
best authenticated martyrdoms, viz. : 

St. Peter, crucified 
St. Paul, beheaded. 
St. Vitale, buried alive. 
St. Thecla, tossed by a bull. 
Under Nero . . \ St. Gervase, beaten to death. 

SS. Protasius, Processus, and Martinianus, be- 
headed. 
St. Faustus and others, clothed in skins of beasts 
and torn to pieces by dogs. 

St. John, boiled in oil (which he survived) at the 
Porta Latina. 
Under Domitian . ^ St. Cletus, Pope beheaded. ,. , ,. 

St. Denis, beheaded (and carrying his head). 
St. Domitilla, roasted alive. 
SS. Nereus and Achilles, beheaded. 

St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, eaten by lions in 
the Coliseum. 

Under Trajan . . -^ St. Clement, Pope, tied to an anchor and thrown 
into the sea. 
^ St. Simon, Bishop of Jerusalem, cnicified. 



» See Emile Braun— the buildiug of the Macellum is described by Dion Cassiu% 
xi. 18 ; Notitia, Reg. ii. 



S. STEFANO ROTONDO. 



227 



Under Hadrian 



St. 



St. 
St. 

LSt. 



Eustachio, his wife Theophista, and his chil- 
dren Agapita and Theophista, burnt in a 
brazen bull before the Coliseum. 

Alexander, Pope, beheaded. 

Sinforosa, drowned, and her seven sons mar- 
tyred in various ways. 

Pius, Pope, beheaded. 



Under Antoninus- 
Pius and Marcus 
Aurelius . 



St. Felicitas and her seven sons martyred in 

various ways. 
St. Justus, beheaded. 
St. Margaret, stretched on a rack, and torn tc 

pieces with iron forks. 



Under Antoninus 
and Verus . . 



St. Blandina, tossed by a bull, in a net. 
St. Attains, roasted on red-hot chair. 
St. Pothicus and others, burnt alive. 



' SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, torn to pieces by lions 
Under Septimius in the Coliseum. 

Severus and \ SS. Victor and Zephyrinus, Leonida and Basil, 
Caracalla . . beheaded. 

, St. Alexandrina, covered with boiling pitch. 



Under Alexander 
Severus . . . 



' St. Calixtus, Pope, thrown into a well with a stone 

round his neck. 
St. Calepodius, dragged through Rome by wild 

horses, and thrown into the Tiber. 
St. Martina, torn with iron forks. 
St. Cecilia, who, failing to be suffocated with hot 

water, was stabbed in the throat. 
St. Urban the Pope, Tibertius, Valerianus, and 

Maximus, beheaded. 



Under Valerianus 
and Gallienus . 



St. Pontianus, Pope, beheaded in Sardinia. 

St. Agatha, her breasts cut off. 

SS. Fabian and Cornelius, Popes, and St. Cyprian 

of Carthage, beheaded. 
St. Tryphon, burnt. 
SS. Abdon and Sennen, torn by lions. 
St. Apollonia, burnt, after all her teeth were pulled 

out. 
St. Stephen, Pope, burnt in his episcopal chair. 
St. Cointha, torn to pieces. 
St. Sixtus, Pope, killed with the sword. 
St. Venantius, thrown from a wall. 
St. Laurence the deacon, roasted on a gridiron. 
St. Hippolytus, torn by wild horses. 
SS, Rufina and Semula, drowned in the Tiber. 
^ SS. Protus and Hiacinthus, beheaded. 



228 



fVALATS IN- ROME. 



Under Claudius 
II 



Under 
and 



Aurelian 
Nuineri- 



Under Diocletian 
and Maximi- 
anvis .... 



Under Maxentius 



Under Maximinus 
and Licinius . 



Three hundred Christians, burnt in a furnace, 

St. Tertullian, burnt with hot irons. 

St. Nemesius, beheaded. 

St. Sempronius, Olympius, and Theodulus, burnt. 

St. Marius, hung, with a huge weight tied to his 

feet. 
St. Martha, and her children, martyred in different 

ways. 
St. Cyprian and Justinian, boiled, 
^ St. Valentine, killed with the sword. 

St. Agapitus (aged 15), hung head downwards over 
a pan of burning charcoal. Inscribed above 
are these words from Wisdom, ' Properavit ut 
educeret ilium a seductionibus et iniquita- 
tibus gentis suse. ' 

St. Christina, transfixed through the heart. 

St. Columba, burnt. 

SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, buried alive. 

St. Agnes, bound to a stake, afterwards beheaded. 
St. Caius, Pope, beheaded. 
St. Emerantia, stoned to death. 
Nearly the whole population of Nicomedia mar- 
tyred in different ways. 
St. Erasmus, laid in a coffin, into which boiling 

lead was poured. 
St. Blaise, bound to a column, and torn to pieces. 
St. Barbara, burnt with hot irons. 
St. Eustrathius and his companions, martyred in 

different ways. 
St. Vincent, burnt on a gridiron. 
SS. Primus and Felicianus, torn by lions. 
St, Anastasia, thrown from a rock ? 
SS, Quattro Incoronati, martyred in various ways. 
SS. Peter and Marcellinus, beheaded. 
St, Boniface, placed in a dungeon full of boiling 

pitch. 
St, Lucia, shut up in a well full of serpents. 
St. Euphemia, run through with a sword. 
SS. Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentius, boiled alive. 
St. Sebastian, shot with arrows (which he survived). 
SS. Cosmo and Damian, Pantaleon, Saturninus, 

Susanna, Gornius, Adrian, and others, in 

different ways. 
St. Catherine of Alexandria, and others, broken 

on the wheel. 
SS. Faustina and Porfirius, burnt with a company 

of soldiers. 
^ St. Marcellus, Pope, died worn out by persecution, 

St, Simon and 1600 citizens cut into fragments. 
St, Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, and forty soldiers, 
left to die, up to their waists in a frozen lake. 



S. STEFANO ROTONDO. 229 



f SS. John and Paul, beheaded. 

I St. ■ 



•T J TV ii I -J"-- Artemms, crushed between two stones. 
Under Juhan the 1 g^ Pi^enius, drowned in the Tiber. 

Apostate . . I gj. ]3ibj>-^^^^^ flogged to death, and thrown for food 
i, to dogs in the Forum, 

The last picture represents the reunion of eminent 
martyrs (in which the Roman Church inchides Enghsh 
sufferers under EHzabeth), and above is inscribed this verse 
from Isaiah xxv., '' Laudabit populus fortis, civitas gentium 
robustarum." 

" Au-dessus du tableau de la Crucifixion se trouve cette inscription : 
* Roi glorieux des martyrs, s'il donne sa vie pour racheter la peche, il 
verra une posterite sans fin.' Et quelle posterite ! Hommes, femmes, 
vieillards, jeunes hommes, jeunes fiUes, enfants ! Comme tous accoiirent, 
comme tous savent mourir." — Une Chretienne a Rome. 

" Lcs paiens avaient divinise la vie, les chretiens diviniserent la mort." 
— Madame de Stael. 

"S. Stefano Rotondo exhibits, in a series of pictures all round the 
church, the martyrdoms of the Christians in the so-called persecutions, 
with a general picture of the most eminent martyrs since the triumph of 
Christianity. No doubt many of the particular stones thus painted will 
bear no critical examination ; it is likely enough, too, that Gibbon has 
truly accused the general statements of exaggeration. But this is a thank- 
less labour, sucli as Lingard and others have undertaken with regard to 
the St. Bartholomew massacre, and the Irish massacre of 1642. Divide 
the sum total of reported martyrs by twenty, — -by fifty, if you will, — 
but after all you have a number of persons of all ages and sexes suffering 
cruel torments and death for conscience' sake and for Christ's, and by 
their sufferings manifestly, with God's blessing, ensuring the triumph of 
Christ's gospel. Neither do I think that we consider the excellence of 
this rnartyr-spirit half enough. I do not think pleasure is a sin : the 
stoics of old, and the ascetic Christians since, who have said so (see the 
answers of that excellent man. Pope Gregory the Great, to Augustine's 
questions, as given at length by Bede), have, in saying so, outstepped 
the simplicity and wisdom of Christian truth. But, though pleasure is 
not a sin, yet surely the contemplation of suffering for Christ's sake is a 
thing most needful to us in our days, from whom, in our daily life, 
suffering seems so far removed. And, as God's grace enabled rich and 
delicate persons, women, and even children, to endure all extremities of 
pain and reproach in times past, so there is the same grace no less 
mighty now, and if we do not close ourselves against it, it might in us 
be no less glorified in a time of trial. And that such times of trial will 
come, my children, in your times, if not in mine, I do believe fully, 
both from the teaching of man's wisdom and of God's. And therefore 
pictures of martyrdom are, I think, very wholesome — not to be sneered 
at, nor yet to be looked on as a mere excitement, — but as a sober 
reminder to us of what Satan can do to hurt, and what God's grace can 
enable the weakest of His people to bear. Neither should we forget 
those who, by their sufferings, were more than conquerors, not for them- 
selves only, but for us, in securing to us the safe and triumohant 



230 WALKS m ROME. 

existence of Christ's blessed faith — in securing to us the possibility, nay, 
the actual enjoyment, had it not been for the Antichrist of the priesthood 
— of Christ's holy and glorious UKXTjnia, the congregation and common- 
wealth of Christ's people." — Arnold's Letters. 

*' On croit que I'eglise de Saint-Etienne-le-Rond est batie sur I'em- 
placement du Macellum Augusti. S'il en est ainsi, les supplices des 
martyrs, hideusement representes sur les murs de cette eglise, rappel- 
lent ce qu'elle a i-emplace." — Ampere, Evip. i. 270. 

The first chapel on the left, dedicated to SS. Primus and 
FeHcianus, contains some dehcate small mosaics. 

"The mosaics of the small altar of S. Stefano Rotondo, are of 
A.D, 642 — 649. A brilliantly-decorated cross is represented between two 
standing figures of vSt. Primus and St. Felicianus. On the upper end of 
the cross (very tastefully introduced) appears a small head of Christ 
%vith a nimbus, over which the hand of the Father is extended in bene- 
diction. ' ' — Kicglcr. 

In the next chapel is a very beautiful tomb of Bernardino 
Capella, Canon of St. Peter's, who died 1524. 

In a small house, which formerly stood among the gar- 
dens in this neighbourhood, Palestrina lived and wrote. 

*' Sous le regne de Paul IV., Palestrina faisait partie de la chapelle 
papale ; mais il fut oblige de la quitter, parce-qu'il etait marie. II se 
retira alors dans une chaumiere perdue au milieu des vignes du Mont 
Coelius, et la, seul, inconnu au monde, il se livra, durant de longs jours, 
a. cette extase de la pensee qui agrandit, au-dela de toute mesure, la 
puissance creatrice de I'homme. Le desir des Peres du concile lui ayant 
ete manifeste, il prit aussitot une plume, ecrivit en tete de son cahier, ' Mon 
Dieu, eclairez-moi,' et se mit a I'oeuvre avec un saint enthousiasme. 
Ses premiers efforts ne repondirent pas a F'ideal que son genie s'etait 
forme ; mais peu a peu ses pensees s'eclaircirent, et les flots de poesie 
qui inondaient son ame. se repandirent en melodies touchantes. Chaque 
parole du texte retentissait clairement, allait chercher toutes les con- 
sciences, et les exaltait dans une emotion commune. La messe dti pape 
Marcel trancha la question ; et Pie IV. s'ecria, apres I'avoir entendue, 
qu'il avait cru assister aux concerts des anges." — Gournerie, Rome 
Ch7'etien)ie, ii. 195. 

Following the lane of S. Stefano Rotondo — skirted by 
broken fragments of Nero's aqueduct — almost to its de- 
bouchment near St. J. Lateran, and then turning to the left, 
we reach the quaint fortress-like church and convent of the 
Santi Quattro Incoronati crowned by a stumpy campanile 
of 1 1 12. The full title of this church is " I Santi quattro 
Pittori Incoronati e i cinque Scultori Martiri," the names 
which the Church attributes to the painters being Severus, 
Severianus, Carpoforus, and Vittorinus ; and those of the 
sculptors Claudius, Nicostratus, Sinforianus, Castorius, and 



SS, QUATTRO INCORONATI. 23 

Simpllclus, — who all suffered for refusing to carve and paint 
idols for Diocletian. Their festa is kept on Nov. 8. 

This church was founded on the site of a temple of Diana 
by Honorius I., a.d. 622; rebuilt by Leo IV. a.d. 850; 
and again rebuilt in its present form by Paschal II., who 
consecrated it afresh in a.d. hit. It is approached through 
a double court, in which are many ancient columns, — 
perhaps remains of the temple. Some antiquaries suppose 
that the church itself was once of larger size, and that the 
pillars which now form its atrium were once included in the 
nave. The interior is arranged on the English plan with a 
triforium and a clerestory, the triforium being occupied by 
the nuns of the adjoining convent. The aisles are groined, 
but the nave has a wooden ceiling. Behind the tribune is 
a vaulted passage, partly subterranean. The tribune con- 
tains a marble throne, and is adorned with frescoes by 
Giovanni di Sa7i Giovanni.^ In the right aisle are pre- 
served some of the verses of Pope Damasus. Another in- 
scription tells of the restoration of the church in the 
fifteenth century, and describes the state of desolation into 
which it had fallen. 

" Haec quaecumque vides veteri pi-ostrata ruina 
Obruta verberis, ederis, dumisque jacebant," 

Opening out of the court in front of the church is the 
little Chapel of S. Sylvestro^ built by Innocent II. in 11 40. 
It contains a series of very curious frescoes. 

" Showing the influence of Byzantine upon Roman art is the little 
chapel of S. Silvestro, detailing the history of the conversion of Con- 
stantine with a naivete which, with the exception of a certain dignity in 
some of the figures, constitutes their sole attraction. They are indeed 
little better than Chinese paintings ; the last of the series, representing 
Constantine leading Pope Sylvester's horse by the bridle, walking 
beside him in his long flowing robe, with a chattah held over his head 
by an attendant, has quite an Asiatic character." — Lord Lindsay s 
Christian Art. 

" Here, as in so many instances, legend is the genuine reflex, not of 
the external, but the moral part of history. In this series of curious wall- 
paintings, we see Constantine dismissing, consoled and laden with gifts, 
the mothers whose children were to be slaughtered to provide a bath of 
blood, the remedy prescribed — but which he humanely rejected — for his 
leprosy, his punishment for persecuting the Church while he yet lingered 
in the darkness of paganism ; we see the vision of St. Peter and 
St. Paul, who appear to him in his dreams, and prescribe the infallible 

* Best known by his comic pictures in the Uffizi at Florence. 



232 WALKS IN ROME, 

cure for both physical and moral disease through the waters of baptism ; 
we see the mounted emissaries, sent by the emperor to seek St. Sylvester, 
finding that pontiff concealed in a cavern on Mount Soracte ; we see 
that saint before the emperor, exhibiting to him the authentic portraits 
of the two apostles (said to be still preserved at St. Peter's), pictures in 
which Constantine at once recognises the forms seen in his vision, 
assuming them to be gods entitled to his worship ; we see the imperial 
baptism, with a background of fantastic architecture, the rite adminis- 
tered both by immersion (the neophyte standing in an ample font) and 
affusion ; we see the pope on a throne, before which the emperor is 
kneeling, to offer him a tiara — no doubt the artist intended thus to 
imply the immediate bestowal of temporal sovereignty (very generally 
believed the act of Constantine in the first flush of his gratitude and 
neophyte zeal) upon the papacy ; lastly, we see the pontiff riding into 
Rome in triumph, Constantine himself leading his horse, and other 
mitred bishops following on horseback. Another picture — evidently 
by the same hand — quaintly represents the finding of the true cross by 
St. Helena, and the miracle by which it was distinguished from the 
crosses of the two thieves, — a subject here introduced because a portion 
of that revered relic was among treasures deposited in this chapel, as au 
old inscription, on one side, records. The largest composition on these 
walls, which completes the series, represents the Saviour enthroned 
amidst angels and apostles. This chapel is now only used for the 
devotions of a guild of marble-cutters, and open for mass on but one 
Sunday — the last — in every month." — -Hemans^ Mediceval Christian 
Art. 

In the fresco of the Crucifixion in this chapel an angel is 
represented taking off the crown of thorns and putting on a 
real crown, an incident nowhere else introduced in art. 

The castellated Convent of the Santi Quattro was built by 
Paschal II. at the same time as the church, and was used 
as a papal palace while the Lateran was in ruins, hence its 
defensive aspect, suited to the troublous times of the anti- 
popes. It is now inhabited by Augustinian Nuns. 

At the foot of the Coelian beneath the Incoronati, and 
in the street leading from the Coliseum to the Lateran, is 
the Church of S. Clenwite, to which recent discoveries have 
given an extraordinary interest. 

The upper church, in spite of modernizations under 
Clement XI. in the last century, retains more of the details 
belonging to primitive ecclesiastical architecture than any 
other building in Rome. It was consecrated in memory of 
Clement, the fellow-labourer of St. Paul, and the third 
bishop of Rome, upon the site of his family house. It was 
already important in the time of Gregory the Great, who 
here read his thirty-third and thirty-eighth homilies. It was 
altered by Adrian I. in a.d. 772, and by John VIII. in a.d. 



S. CLEMENTE. 233 

800, and again restored in a.d. 1099 by Paschal II., who had 
been cardinal of the church, and who was elected to the 
papacy within its walls. The greater part of the existing 
building is thus either of the ninth or the twelfth century. 

At the west end a porch supported by two columns, and 
attributed to the eighth century, leads into the quadriporticus^ 
from which is the entrance to the nave, separated from its 
aisles by sixteen columns evidently plundered from pagan 
buildings. Raised above the nave and protected by a low 
marble wall is the cancellum, preserving its ancient pavement, 
ambones, altar, and episcopal throne. 

*' In S. Clemente, built on the site of his paternal mansion, and 
restored at the beginning of the twelfth centuiy, an example is still to 
be seen, in perfect preservation, of the primitive church ; everything 
remains in statu quo — the court, the portico, the cancellum, the am- 
bones, paschal candlestick, crypt, and ciborium — virgin and intact ; the 
wooden roof has unfortunately disappeared, and a small chapel, dedi- 
cated to St. Catherine, has been added, yet even this is atoned for by 
the lovely frescoes of Masaccio. I most especially recommend this relic 
of early Christianity to your affectionate and tender admiration. Yet 
the beauty of S. Clemente is internal only, outwardly it is little more 
than a barn." — Lord Lindsay. 

On the left of the side entrance is the chapel of the 
Passion clothed with frescoes of Masaccio., which, though 
restored, are very beautiful — over the altar is the Crucifix- 
ion, on the side walls the stories of St. Clement and St. 
Catherine. 

"The celebrated series relating to St. Catherine is still most striking 
in the grace and refinement of its principal figures : 

" I. St. Catherine (cousin of the Emperor Constantine) refuses to 
worship idols. 

"2. She converts the empress of Maximin. She is seen through a 
window seated inside a prison, and the empress is seated outside the 
prison, opposite to her, in a graceful listening attitude. 

"3. The empress is beheaded, and her soul is carried to heaven by an 
angel. 

" 4. Catherine disputes with the pagan philosophers. She is standing 
in the midst of a hall, the forefinger of one hand laid on the othei-, as in 
the act of demonstrating. She is represented fair and girlish, dressed 
with great simplicity in a tunic and girdle, — no crown, nor any other 
attribute. The sages are ranged on each side, some lost in thought, 
others in astonishment, the tyrant (Maximin) is seen behind, as if 
watching the conference, while through an open window we behold the 
fire kindled for the converted philosophers, and the scene of their 
execution. 

"5. Catherine is delivered from the wheels, which are broken by an 
angel. 



234 WALJCS IN ROME, 

** 6. She is beheaded. In the background three angels lay her in a 
sarcophagus on the summit of Mount Sinai." — See yameson^s Sacred 
Art, p. 491. 

" ' Masaccio,' says Vasari, 'whose enthusiasm for art would not 
allow him to rest contentedly at Florence, resolved to go to Rome, that 
he might learn there to surpass every other painter.' It was dui-ing this 
journey, which, in fact, added much to his renown, that he painted, in 
the Church of San Clemente — the chapel which now so usually dis- 
appoints the expectations of the traveller, on account of the successive 

restorations by which his work has been disfigured The 

heavy brush which has passed over each compartment has spared neither 
the delicacy of the outline, the roundness of the forms, nor the play of 
light and shade : in a word, nothing which constitutes the peculiar merit 
of Masaccio." — I\io, Poetry of Christian Art. 

At the end of the right aisle is the beautiful tomb of 
Cardinal Rovarella, ob. 1476. A statue of St. John the 
Baptist is by Simone, brother of Donatello. Beneath the 
altar repose the relics of St. Clement, St. Ignatius of 
Antioch — martyred in the Coliseum, St. Cyril, and St. 
Servulus. 

*' St. Gregoire raconte que de son temps on voyait dans le vestibule de 
I'eglise Saint Clement un pauvre paralytique, priant et mendiant, sans 
que jamais une plainte sortit de sa bouche, malgre les vives douleurs 
qu'il endurait. Chaque fidele lui donnait, et le paralytique distribuait 
a son tour, aux malheureux ce qu'il avait re9u de la compassion publique. 
Lorsqu'il mourut, son corps fiit place pres de celui de Saint Clement, 
pape, et de Saint Ignace d'Antioche, et son nom fut inscrit au martyro- 
loge. On le venere dans I'figlise sous le nom de Saint Servulus." — Une 
Chretieniie a Rome. 

The mosaics in the tribune are well worth examination. 

"There are few Christian mosaics in which mystic meaning and 
poetic imagination are more felicitous than in those on the apse of 
S. Clemente, where the crucifix, and a wide-spreadmg vine-tree (allusive 
to His words, who said ' I am the True Vine'), spring from the same 
stem ; twelve doves, emblems of the apostles, being on the cross with 
the Divine Sufferer ; the Mother and St. John beside it, the usual hand 
stretched out in glory above, with a crown ; the four doctors of the 
Church, also other small figures, men and birds, introduced amidst 
the mazy vine-foliage ; and at the basement, the four mystic rivers, 
with stags and peacocks drinking at their streams. The figure of St. 
Dominic is a modern addition. It seems evident, from characteristics 
of style, that the other mosaics here, above the apsidal arch, and at the 
spandrils, are more ancient, perhaps by about a century ; these latter 
representing the Saviour in benediction, the four Evangelic emblems, 
St. Peter and St. Clement, St. Paul and St. Laurence seated ; the two 
apostles designated by their names, with the Greek * hagios ' in Latin 
letters. The later art-work was ordered (see the Latin inscription 
below) in 1299, ^7 ^ cardinal titular of S- Clemente, nephew to 
Boniface VIII. ; thj s.ime who also bestowed the beautiful gothic 



S. CLEMENTE. 235 

tabernacle for the holy oils, with a relief representing the donor, pre- 
sented by St. Dominic to the Virgin and Child — set against the wall 
near the tribune, an admirable, though but an accessorial, object of 
mediaeval art." — He7nans Mediaval Art. 

From the sacristy a staircase leads to the Lower Chiii'ch 
(occasionally illuminated for the public) first discovered in 
1857. Here, there are several pillars of the rarest marbles in 
perfect preservation, and a very curious series of frescoes 
of the eighth and ninth centuries, parts of which are still 
clear and almost uninjured. These include — the Cruci- 
fixion, with the Virgin and St. John standing by the cross, — 
the earliest example in Rome of this well-known subject; 
the Ascension, sometimes called by Romanists (in prepara- 
tion for their dogma of 1870), " the Assumption of the 
Virgin," because the figure of the Virgin is elevated above 
the other apostles, though she is evidently intent on watching 
the retreating figure of her divine Son — in this fresco the 
figure of a pope is introduced (with the square nimbus, 
showing that it was painted in his lifetime) and the inscrip- 
tion " Sanctissimus dominus, Leo Papa Romanus,^' pro- 
bably Leo III. or Leo IV.; the Maries at the sepulchre; 
the descent into Hades ; the Marriage of Cana ; the Funeral 
of St. Cyril with Pope Nicholas I. (858 — 67) walking in the 
procession ; and, the most interesting of all — ^probably of 
somewhat later date, the story of S. Clemente, and that of 
S. Alexis, whose adventures are described in the account 
of his church on the Aventine. An altar of Mithras was 
discovered during the excavations here. Beneath this crypt 
is still a third structure, discovered 1867, — probably the 
very house of St. Clement — (decorated with rich stucco 
ornament) — sometimes supposed to be the ' cavern near 
S. Clemente ' to which the Emperor Otho III., who died 
at the age of twenty-two, retired in a.d. 999 with his 
confessor, and where he spent fourteen days in penitential 
retirement. 

According to the Acts of the Martyrs, the Prefect Mamer- 
tinus ordered the arrest of Pope Clement, and intended to 
put him to death, but was deterred by a tumult of the 
people, who cried with one voice, *' What evil has he done, 
or rather what good has he not done ? " Clement was then 
condemned to exile in the Chersonese, and Mamertinus, 
touched by his submission and courage, dismissed him with 



236 WALKS m ROME. 

the words — " May the God you worship bring you relief in 
the place of your banishment." 

In his exile Clement received into the Church more than 
two hundred Christians who had been waiting for baptism, and 
miraculously discovered water for their support in a barren 
rock, to which he was directed by a I.amb, in whose form 
he recognised the guidance of the Son of God. The en- 
thusiasm which these marvels excited led Trajan to send 
executioners, by whom he was tied to an anchor and thrown 
into the sea. But his disciples, kneeling on the shore, 
prayed that his relics might be given up to them, when the 
waves retired, and disclosed a marble chapel, built by un- 
earthly hands — over the tomb of the saint. From the Cher- 
sonese the remains of St. Clement were brought back to 
Rome by St. Cyril, the Apostle of the Slavonians, who, 
dying here himself, was buried by his side. 



CHAPTER VIIL 
THE AVENTINE. 



Jewish Burial-ground — Sta. Sabina — S. Alessio — The Priorato — Sta. 
Prisca — The Vigna dei Jesuiti — S. Sabba — Sta. Balbina. 

THE Aventine, which is perhaps the highest, and now — 
from its coronet of convents — the most picturesque 
of all the Roman Hills, is of irregular form, and is divided 
into two parts by a valley ; one side, the higher, is crowned 
by the churches of Sta. Sabina, S. Alessio, and the Priorato, 
which together form "the Capitol of the Aventine;" the other, 
known as the Pseudo-Aventine, is marked by the churches 
of S. Sabba and Sta. Balbina. 

Virgil and Ovid allude repeatedly to the thick woods 
which once clothed the Aventine.* Dionysius speaks of 
the laurels or bays, an indigenous tree of ancient Rome, 
which grew there in abundance. Only one side of the hill, 
that towards the Tiber, now shows any of the natural cliff, 
but it was once remarkable for its rocks, and the Pseudo- 

* Virg. iEn. viii. 104, 108, 216 ; Ov. Fast. i. 551. 



STORY OF THE AVENTINE. 237 

Aventine obtained the name of Saxum from a huge soHtary 
mass of stone which surmounted it. 

'* Est moles nativa ; loco res nomina fecit 
Appellant Saxum : pars bona montis ea est.' * 

The .upper portion of the hill is of volcanic formation, 
and it is supposed that the legend of Cacus vomiting forth 
flames from his cave on the side of the Aventine had its 
origin in noxious sulphuric vapours emitted by the soil, as 
is still the case at the Solfatara on the way to Tivoli. The 
demi-god Faunus, who had an oracle at the Solfatara, had 
also an oracle on this hill.f 

Some derive the name of Aventine from Aventinus- 
Silvius, king of Alba, who was buried here; J others from 
Avens, a Sabine river ; while others say that the name simply 
means " the hill of birds," and connect it with the story of 
the foundation of the city. For when it became necessary 
to decide whether Romulus or Remus was to rule over the 
newly-built Rome, Romulus seated himself upon the Pala- 
tine to watch the auspices, but Remus upon the rock of the 
Pseudo-Aventine. Here Remus saw only six vultures, while 
Romulus saw twelve, but each interpreted the augury in his 
own favour, and Remus leapt across the boundary of the 
Palatine, whether in derision or war, and was slain by his 
brother, or by Celer, one of his followers. He was brought 
back and buried upon the Aventine, and the stone whence 
he had watched the vultures was thenceforth called the 
Sacred Rock. Ancient tradition places the tomb of Remus 
on the Pseudo-Aventine, but in the middle ages the tomb of 
Caius Cestus was believed — even by Petrarch — to be the 
monument of Remus. 

Some authorities consider that when Remus was watching 
the vultures on the Pseudo-Aventine, that part of the hill 
was already occupied by a Pelasgic fortress called Romoria, 
but at this time and for long afterwards, the higher part of the 
Aventine was held by the Sabines. Here the Sabine king 
Numa dedicated an altar to Jupiter Ehcius,§ and the 
Sabine god Consus had also an altar here. Hither Numa 
came to visit the forest-gods Faunus and Picus at their 
sacred fountain : 

* Ov. Fast. V. 149. t Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. 79. 

+ Varro, iv. 7. § Livy, i. so. 



238 WALKS IN ROME, 

Lucus Aventino suberat niger ilicis umbra, 

Quo posses viso dicere, numen inest. 
In medio gramen, muscoque adoperta virenti 

Manabat saxo vena perennis aquae. 
Inde fere soli Faunus Picusque bibebant.* 

By mingling wine and honey with the waters of their 
spring, Numa snared the gods, and compelled them to tell 
him how he might learn from Jupiter the knowledge of his 
will, and to reveal to him a charm against thunder and 
lightning, t 

The Sat)ine king Tatius, the rival of Romulus, was 
buried on the Aventine " in a great grove of laurels," and, at 
his tomb, then called Armilustrum, it was the custom, every 
year, in the month of October, to hold a feast for the purifi- 
cation of arms, accompanied by martial dances. A horse 
was at the same time sacrificed to Janus, the Sabine war- 
god, t 

Ancus Martins surrounded the Aventine by a wall,§ and 
settled there many thousands of the inhabitants of Latin 
towns which he had subdued. This was the origin of the 
plebs, who were soon to become such formidable opponents 
of the first colonists of the Palatine, who took rank as patri- 
cians, and who at first found in them an important counter- 
poise to the power of the original Sabine inhabitants, against 
whom the little Latin colony of Romulus had hitherto been 
standing alone. The Aventine continued always to be the 
especial property and sanctuary of the plebs, the patricians 
avoiding it — in the first instance, it is supposed, from an im- 
pression that the hill was of evil omen, owing to the story 
of Remus. In B.C. 416, the tribune Icilius proposed and 
carried a law by which all the public lands of the Aventine 
were officially conferred upon the plebs, who forthwith 
began to cover its heights with houses, in which each family 
of the people had a right in one floor, — a custom which 
still prevails at Rome. At this time, also, the Aventine 
was included for the first time within the pomcerium or 
religious boundary of the city. Owing to its being the '• hill 
of the people," the commons henceforth held their comitia 
and elected their tribunes here \ and here, after the murder 

* Ovid, Fast. iii. 295. 

t " Onions, hair, and pilchards." — See Plutarch's Life of Numa. 

X Ampere, Hist, of Rome, i. 427. § Dionysius, iii. 43. 



TEMPLES OF THE AVENTINE. 239 

of Virginia, to whom the tribune IciHus had been betrothed, 
the army assembled against Appius Claudius, 

Very little remains of the numerous temples which once 
adorned the hill, but their sites are tolerably well ascer- 
tained. We still ascend the Aventine by the ancient Clivus 
Publicius, originally paved by two brothers Publicii, who 
were aediles at the same time, and had embezzled a public 
sum of money, which they were compelled to expend thus — 

Parte locant clivum, qui tunc erat ardua rapes : 
Utile nunc iter est, Publiciumque vocant.* 

At the foot of this road was the temple of Luna, or Jana, in 
which Tatius had also erected an altar to Janus or the Sun. 

Luna regit menses ; hujus quoque tempora mensis 
Finit Aventino Luna colenda jugo.+ 

It was up this road that Caius Gracchus, a few hours 
before his death, fled to take refuge in a small Temple of 
Diana, which stood somewhere near the present site of S. 
Alessio, where, kneeling before the statue of the goddess, he 
implored that the people who had betrayed him might never 
be free. Close by, singularly enough, rose the Temple of 
Liberty, which his grandfatlier Sempronius Gracchus had 
built. Adjoining this temple was a hall where the archives 
of the censors were kept, and where they transacted busi- 
ness ; this was rebuilt by Asinius Pollio, who added to it 
the first pubhc library established in Rome. 

Nee me, quae doctis patuerunt prima libellis 
Atria, Libertas tangere passa sua est. % 

In the same group stood the famous sanctuary of Juno 
Regina, vowed by Camillus during the siege of Veii, and to 
which the Juno of the captured city was removed after she 
had given a verbal consent when asked whether she wished 
to go to Rome and inhabit a new temple, much as the 
modem queen of heaven is apt to do in modern times at 
Rome.§ The Temples of Liberty and Juno were both 
rebuilt under Augustus ; some imagine that they were under 
a common roof If they were distinct buildings, nothing of 
the former remains ; some beautiful columns built into the 
church of Sta. Sabina are all that remain of the temple 

• Ovid, Fast. v. 293. f Fast. iii. 883. % Ovid, Trist. iii. 71. 

§ See the account of the Ch. of Sta. Francesca Romana, Chap. iv. 



240 WALKS IN ROME. 

of Juno, though Livy thought that her reign here would be 
eternal — 

. . . in Aventinum, apternam sedem suani.* 

Also belonging to this group was a Temple of Minerva. 

Sol abit a Geminis, et Cancri signa rubescunt : 
Coepit Aventina Pallas in arce coli.f 

Here the dramatist Livius Andronicus, who lived upon 
the Aventine, was honoured after his death by a company 
of scribes and actors. Another poet who lived upon the 
Aventine was Ennius, who is described as inhabiting a 
humble dwelling, and being attended by a single female 
slave. The poet Gallus also lived here. 

Totis, Galle, jubes tibi me servire diebus, 
Et per Aventinum ter quater ii'e tuum ! | 

On the other side of the Aventine (above the Circus 
Maximus), which was originally covered with myrtle — a 
shrub now almost extinct at Rome — on the site now occu- 
pied by Sta. Prisca, was a more important Temple of Diana, 
sometimes called by the Sabine name of Murcia, — built in 
imitation of the temple of Diana at Ephesus. Propertius 
writes — 

Phyllis Aventinse quaedam est vicina Dianae ; § 

and Martial — 

Quique videt propius magna certamina Circi 
Laudat Aventinae vicinus Sura Dianae. || 

Here till the time of Dionysius was preserved the pillar of 
brass on which was engraved the law of Icilius, 

Near this were the groves of Simila, the retreat of the 
infamous association discovered and terribly punished at the 
time of the Greek wars ; and — in the time of the empire — the 
gardens of Servilia, where she received the devotion of Julius 
Caesar, and in which her son Brutus is said to have con- 
spired his murder, and to have been interrogated by his 
wife Portia as to the mystery, which he refused to reveal to 
her, fearing her weakness under torture, until, by the con- 
cealment of a terrible wound which she had given to herself, 
she had proved to him that the daughter of Cato could suffer 
and be silent. 

The Aventine continued to be inhabited, and even popu- 

* I.i' y, V. 22. t Ovid, Fast. vi. 727. + Martial, x. Ep. 56. 

^ Propert. iv. El. 9. || Mart. iv. Ep. 64. 



JEWISH CEMETERY. 241 

lous, until the sixth century, from which period its prosperity 
began to decline. In the eleventh century it was occupied 
by the camp of Henry IV. of Germany, when he came 
in war against Gregory VII. In the thirteenth century 
Honorius III. made a final effort to re-establish its popu- 
larity; but with each succeeding generation it has become, 
— partly owing to the ravages of malaria — more and more 
deserted, till now its sole inhabitants are monks, and the 
few ague-stricken contadini who look after the monastic 
vineyards. In wandering along its desolate lanes, hemmed 
in by hedges of, elder, or by walls covered with parasitical 
plants, it is difficult to realize the time when it was so 
thickly populated ; and except in the quantities of coloured 
marbles with which its fields and vineyards are strewn, 
there is nothing to remind one of the 16 aediculse, 64 baths, 
25 granaries, 88 fountains, 130 of the larger houses called 
damns, and 2487 of the poorer houses called i?isulcB, which 
occupied this site. 

The present interest of the hill is almost wholly ecclesi- 
astical, and centres around the story of St. Dominic, and 
the legends of the saints and martyrs connected with its 
different churches. 

The best approach to the Aventine is behind the Church 
of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, where the Via Sta. Sabina^ 
once the Clivus Publicius (available for carriages), turns up 
the hill. 

A lane on the left leads to the Jewish burial-ground, used 
as a place of sepulture for the Ghetto for many centuries. 
A curious instance of the cupidity attributed to the Jewish 
race may be seen in the fact, that they have, for a remu- 
neration of four baiocchi, habitually given leave to their 
neighbours to discharge the contents of a rubbish cart into 
their cemetery, a permission of which the Romans have 
so abundantly availed themselves, that the level of the 
soil has been raised by many yards, and whole sets of 
older monuments have been completely swallowed up, and 
new ones erected over their heads. 

After we turn the corner at the hill top, with its fine view 
over the Palatine, and cross the trench of fortification formed 
during the fear of a Garibaldian invasion in 1867, we skirt 
what appears to be part of a city wall. This is in fact the 



242 WALKS IN ROME. 

wall of the Honorian city, built by Pope Honorius III., of 

the great family of Savelli, whose idea was to render the 
Aventine once more the populous and favourite portion of 
the city, and who began great works for this purpose. Before 
his arrangements were completed St. Dominic arrived in 
Rome, and was appointed master of the papal household, 
and abbot of the convent of Sta. Sabina, where his minis- 
trations and popularity soon formed such an attraction, that 
the pope wisely abandoned his design of founding a new 
city which should commemorate himself, and left the 
field to St. Dominic, — to whom he made over the land on 
this side of the hill. Henceforward the convent of Sta. 
Sabina and its surroundings have become, more than any 
other spot, connected with the history of the Dominican 
Order, — there, all the great saints of the Order have received 
their first inspiration, — have resided, — or are buried ; there 
St. Dominic himself received in a beatific vision the insti- 
tution of the rosary ; there he was ordered to plant the 
famous orange-tree, which, being then unknown in Rome, 
he brought from his native Spain as the only present which 
it was suitable for the gratitude of a poor monk to offer 
to his patron Honorius, who was himself one of the great 
botanists of his time, — an orange-tree which still lives, and 
which is firmly believed by the monks to flourish or fail 
with the fortunes of the Order, so that it has lately been 
greatly the worse for the suppression of the convents in 
Northern Italy, though the residence of Pere Lacordaire 
within the convent proved exceedingly beneficial to it, and 
his visit even caused a new sucker to sprout. 

The Church of Sta. Sabina was built on the site of the 
house of the saint — in which she suffered martyrdom under 
the Emperor Hadrian,^' in a.d. 423 — by Peter, a priest of 
Illyria, "rich for the poor, and poor for himself" {pauperibus 
locuples, sibi pauper)^ as we read by the mosaic inscription 
inside the principal entrance. St. Gregory the Great read 
two of his homiHes here. The church was rebuilt in 824, 
and restored and reconsecrated by Gregory IX. in 1238. 
Much of its interest, — ancient pavements, mosaics, &c., — ■ 
was destroyed in 1587 by Sixtus V., who took the credit 

* There is a beautiful picture of Sta. Sabina by Vivariniof Murano,in St. Zacharia, 
at Venice 



STA. SABINA. 243 

of discovering the relics of the martyrs who are buried 
beneath the altar. 

On the west is a covered corridor containing several 
ancient inscriptions. It is supported on one side by ancient 
spiral columns of pavonazzetto, on the other these have 
been plundered and replaced by granite. Hence, through a 
window, ladies are allowed to gaze upon the celebrated 
prange-tree, 665 years old, which they cannot approach ; 
a rude figure of St. Dominic is sculptured upon the low 
wall which surrounds it. The west door, of the twelfth 
century, in a richly sculptured frame, is cited by Kugler 
as an instance of the extinction of the Byzantine influence 
upon art. Its panels are covered with carvings from the 
Old and New Testament, referred by Mamachi to the 
seventh, by Agincourt to the thirteenth century. Some 
of the subjects have been destroyed ; among those which 
remain are the Annunciation, the Angels appearing to the 
Shepherds, the Angel and Zachariah in the Temple, the 
Magi, Moses turning the rods into serpents, the ascent 
of Elijah, Christ before Pilate, the denial of Peter, and 
the Ascension. Within the entrance are the only remains 
of the magnificent mosaic, erected in 431, under Celes- 
tine I., which entirely covered the west wall till the time 
of Sixtus v., consisting of an inscription in large letters, 
with a female figure on either side, that on the left 
bearing the name " Ecclesia cum circumcisione," that on 
the right, " Ecclesia ex gentibus." Among the parts 
destroyed were the four beasts typical of the Evangelists, 
and St. Peter and St. Paul. The church was thus gor- 
geously decorated, because in the time of the Savelli popes, 
it was what the Sistine is now, the Chiesa Apostolica. 

The nave is lined by twenty-four Corinthian columns 
of white marble, relics of the temple of Juno Regina, which 
once stood here. Above, is an inlaid frieze of pietradura, 
of A.D. 431, which once extended up to the windows, but 
was destroyed by Sixtus V., who at the same time built up 
the windows which till then existed over each pier. In 
the middle of the pavement near the altar, is a ver}^ cu- 
rious mosaic figure over the grave of Munoz de Zamora, 
a General of the Dominican Order, who died in 1300. 
Nearer the west door are interesting incised slabs repre- 
senting a German bishop and a lady, benefactors of this 



244 IVALKS IN ROME. 

church, and (on the left) a slab with arms in mosaic, to a 
lady of the Savelli family. In the left aisle is another 
monument of 13 12, commemorating a warrior of the im- 
perial house of Germany. The high altar covers the remains 
of Sabina and Seraphia, Alexander the Pope, Eventius and 
Theodulus, all martyrs. In the chapel beneath St Dominic is 
said to have flagellated himself three times nightly, " perche 
un colpo solo non abbastava par mortificare il carne." 

At the end of the right aisle is the Chapel of the Ro- 
sary, where a beautiful picture of Sassoferrato, called " La 
Madonna del Rosario,^' commemorates the vision of St. 
Dominic on that spot, in which he received the rosary from 
the hands of the Virgin. 

" St. Catherine of Siena kneels with St. Dominic before the throne 
of the Madonna ; the lily at her feet. The Infant Saviour is turned 
towards her, and with one hand he crowns her with thorns, with the 
other he presents the rosary. This is the mastei*-piece of the painter, 
with all his usual elegance, without his usual insipidity." — yamesoit's 
Monastic Orders. 

Few Roman Catholic practices have excited more ani- 
madversion than the " vain repetition " of the worship of 
the Rosary. The Pere Lacordaire (a Dominican) defended 
it, saying — 

**Le rationaliste sourit en voyant passer de longues files de gens qui 
redisent une meme parole. Celui qui est eclaire d'une meilleure 
lumiere comprend que I'amour n'aqu'un mot, et qu'en le disant toujours, 
il ne le repete jamais." 

Grouped around this chapel are three beautiful tombs, — 
a cardinal, a bishop, and a priest of the end of the fifteenth 
century. That of the cardinal (which is of the well-known 
Roman type of the time), is inscribed " Ut moriens viveret, 
vixit est mori turns;" the others are incised slabs. At the 
other end of this aisle is a marble slab, on which St. Dominic 
is said to have been wont to lie prostrate in prayer. One 
day while he was lying thus, the Devil in his rage is said to 
have hurled a huge stone (a round black marble, pietra di 
paragone^) at him, which missed the saint, who left the 
attack entirely unnoticed. The devil was frantic with dis- 
appointment, and the stone, remaining as a relic, is pre- 
served on a low pillar in the nave. A small gothic ciborium, 
richly inlaid with mosaic, remains on the left of the tribune. 

Opening from the left aisle is a chapel built by Elic of 



STA. SAB IN A. 245 

Tuscany — very rich in precious marbles. The frame of the 
panel on the left is said to be unique. 

It was in this church, in 12 18, that St. Hyacinth, struck 
by the preaching of St. Dominic, and by the recollection 
of the barbarism, heathenism, and ignorance which pre- 
vailed in many parts of his native land of Silesia, offered 
himself as its missionary, and took the vows of the 
Dominican Order, together with his cousin St. Ceslas. 
Hither fled to the monastic life St. Thomas Aquinas, pur- 
sued to the very door of the convent by the tears and 
outcries of his mother, who vainly implored him to return 
to her. One evening, a pilgrim, worn out with travel and 
fatigue, arrived at the door of this convent mounted upon a 
wretched mule, and implored admittance. The prior in 
mockery asked, "What are you come for, my father? are 
you come to see if the college of cardinals is disposed 
to elect you as pope ? " "I come to Rome," replied the 
pilgrim Michele Ghislieri, " because the interests of the 
Church require it, and I shall leave as soon as my task is 
accomplished ; meanwhile I implore you to give me a brief 
hospitality and a little hay for my mule." Sixteen years 
afterwards Ghislieri mounted the papal throne as Pius V., 
and proved, during a troubled reign, the most rigid follower 
and eager defender of the institutions of St. Dominic. One 
day as Ghislieri was about to kiss his crucifix in the eager- 
ness of prayer, " the image of Christ," says the legend, retired 
of its own accord from his touch, for it had been poisoned 
by an enemy, and a kiss would have been death. This 
crucifix is now preserved as a precious relic in the convent, 
where the cells, both of St. Dominic and of St. Pius V. are 
preserved, though, like most historical chambers of Roman 
saints, their interest is lessened by their having been 
beautified and changed into chapels. In the cell of St. 
Dominic is a portrait by Bazzini, founded on the records 
of his personal appearance ; the lily lies by his side, — the 
glory hovers over his head, — he is, as the chronicler de- 
scribes him, " of amazing beauty." In this cell he is said 
frequently to have passed the night in prayer with his rival 
St. Francis of Assisi. The refectory is connected with 
another story of St. Dominic : — 

' ' It happened that when he was residing with forty of his friars in 
the convent of Sta. Sabina at Rome, the brothers who had been sent to 



246 WALKS IN ROME. 

beg for provisions had returned with a very small quantity of bread, 
and they knew not what they should do, for night was at hand, and 
they had not eaten all day. Then St. Dominic ordered that they should 
seat themselves in the refectory, and, taking his place at the head of the 
table, he pronounced the usual blessing: and behold! two beautiful 
youths clad in white and shining garments appeared amongst them ; 
one carried a basket of bread, and the other a pitcher of wine, which 
they distributed to the brethren : then they disappeared, and no one 
knew how they had come in, nor how they had gone out. And the 
brethren sat in amazement; but St, Dominic stretched forth his hand, 
and said calmly, 'My children, eat what God hath sent you:' and it 
was truly celestial food, such as they had never tasted before nor since." 
— "Jameson's Mojiastic Orders^ p. 369. 

Other saints who sojourned for a time in this convent 
were St. Norbert, founder of the Premonstratensians (ob. 
1 134), and St. Raymond de Penaforte (ob. 1275), who left 
his labours in Barcelona for a time in 1230 to act as 
chaplain to Gregory IX. 

In 1287 a conclave was held at Sta. Sabina for the election 
of a successor to Pope Martin IV., but was broken up by 
the malaria, six cardinals dying at once within the convent, 
and all the rest taking flight except Cardinal Savelli, who 
would not desert his paternal home, and survived by keep- 
ing large fires constantly burning in his chamber. Ten 
months afterwards his perseverance was rewarded by his 
own election to the throne as Honorius IV. 

In the garden of the convent are some small remains of 
the palace of the Savelli pope, Honorius III. Here, on the 
declivity of the Aventine, many important excavations were 
made in 1856 — 57, by the French Prior Besson, a person of 
great intelligence, and he was rewarded by the discovery 
of an ancient Roman house — its chambers paved with black 
and white mosaic, and some fine fragments of the wall 
of Servius Tullius, formed of gigantic blocks of peperino. 
In the chambers which were found decorated in stucco with 
remnants of painting in figures and arabesque ornaments, 
"one little group represented a sacrifice before the statue 
of a god, in an sedicula. Some rudely scratched Latin 
lines on this surface led to the inference that this chamber, 
after becoming subterranean and otherwise uninhabitable, 
had served for a prison ; one unfortunate inmate having 
inscribed curses against those who caused his loss of 
liberty ; and another, more devout, left record of his 



S. ALESSIO. 247 

vows to sacrifice to Bacchus in case of recovering that 
blessing."'"^ 

Since the death of Prior Besson the works have been 
abandoned, and the remains already discovered have been 
for the most part earthed up again. A nympheum, a well, 
and several subterranean passages, are still visible on the 
hill side. 

Just beyond Sta. Sabina is the Jeronymite Church and 
Convent of S. Akssio, the only monastery of Jeronymites 
in Italy where meat was allowed to be eaten, — in con- 
sideration of the malaria. The first church erected here 
was built in A.D. 305 in honour of St. Boniface, martyr, by 
Aglae, a noble Roman lady, whose servant (and lover) he 
had been. It was reconsecrated in a.d. 401 by Innocent 
I., in honour of St. Alexis, whose paternal mansion was on 
this site. This saint, young and beautiful, took a vow of 
virginity, and being forced by his parents into marriage, 
fled on the same evening from his home, and was given 
up as lost. Worn out and utterly changed he returned 
many years afterwards to be near those who were dear to 
him, and remained, unrecognised, as a poor beggar, under 
the stairs which led to his father's house. Seventeen years 
passed away, when a mysterious voice suddenly echoed 
through the Roman churches, crying, " Seek ye out the 
man of God, that he may pray for Rome." The crowd 
was stricken with amazement, — when the same voice con- 
tinued, " Seek in the house of Euphemian." Then, pope, 
emperor, and senators rushed together to the Aventine, 
where they found the despised beggar dying beneath the 
doorstep, with his countenance beaming with celestial light, 
a crucifix in one hand, and a sealed paper in the other. 
Vainly the people strove to draw the paper from the fingers 
which were closing in the gripe of death, but when Inno- 
cent I. bade the dying man in God's name to give it up, 
they opened, and the pope read aloud to the astonished 
multitude the secret of Alexis, and his father Euphemian, 
and his widowed bride, regained in death the son and the 
husband they had lost. 

S. Alessio is entered through a courtyard. 

'The courtyards in front of S. Alessio, Sta. Cecilia, S. Gregorio, 
* Hemans' Monuments in Rome* 



248 WALK'S IN ROME. 

and other churches, are like the vestibula of the ancient Roman houses, 
on the site of which they were probably built. This style of building, 
says Tacitus, was generally introduced by Nero. Beyond opened the 
prothyra, or inner entrance, with the cellce for the porter and dog, both 
chained, on either side." 

In the portico of the church is a statue of Benedict XIII. 
(Pietro Orsini, 1724). The west door has a rich border of 
mosaic. The church has been so much modernised as" to 
retain no appearance of antiquity. The fine Opus-Alexan- 
drinum pavement is preserved. In the floor is the incised 
gothic monument of Lupi di Olmeto, general of the 
Jeronymites (ob. 1433). Left of the entrance is a shrine of 
S. Alessio, with his figure sleeping under the staircase — 
part of the actual wooden stairs being enclosed in a glass 
case over his head. Not far from this is the ancient well of 
his father's house. In a chapel which opens out of a 
passage leading to the sacristy is the fine tomb of Cardinal 
Guido di Balneo, of the time of Leo X. He is represented 
sitting, with one hand resting on the ground — the delicate 
execution of his lace in marble is much admired. The 
mosaic roof of this chapel was burst open by a cannon-ball 
during the French bombardment of 1849, but the figure 
was uninjured. The baldacchino (well known from Mac- 
pherson's photographs) is remarkable for its perfect pro- 
portions. Behind, in the tribune, are the inlaid mosaic 
pillars of a gothic tabernacle. No one should omit to 
descenid into the Crypt of S. Alessio, which is an early church, 
supported on stunted pillars, and containing a marble 
episcopal chair, green with age. Here the pope used to 
meet the early conclaves of the Church in times of perse- 
cution The pillar under the altar is shown as that to 
which St. Sebastian was bound when he was shot with 
the arrows. 

The cloister of the convent, from which ladies are 
excluded, blooms with orange and lemon ti-ees. There 
are only six Jeronymite brethren here now. The convent 
was at one time purchased by the late ex-king Ferdi- 
nand of Spain, who intended turning it into a villa for 
himself 

A short distance beyond S. Alessio is a sort of little 
square, adorned with trophied memorials of the knights of 
Malta, and occupying the site of the laurel grove (Armi- 



THE PRIOR ATO, 249 

lustrum) which contained the tomb of Tatius. Here is the 
entrance of the Priorato garden, where is the famous View 
of St. Peter's through the Keyhole, admired by crowds of 
people on Ash-Wednesday, when the " stazione " is held at 
the neighbouring churches. Entering the garden (which 
can always be visited) we find ourselves in a beautiful 
avenue of old bay-trees framing the distant St. Peter's. 
A terrace overhanging the Tiber has an enchanting view 
over the river and town. In the garden is an old pepper- 
tree, and in a little court a picturesque palm-tree and well. 
From hence we can enter the church, sometimes called 
S. Basilio, sometimes Sta. Maria Ave?iti?ia, an ancient 
building modernized by Cardinal Rezzonico in 1765, from 
the very indifferent designs of Piranesi. It contains an 
interesting collection of tombs, most of them belonging 
to the Knights of Malta; that of Bishop Spinelli is 
an ancient marble sarcophagus, with a relief of Minerva 
and the Muses. A richly sculptured ancient altar con- 
tains relics of saints found beneath the pavement of the 
church. ~"- 

The Priorato garden, so beautiful and attractive in itself, 
has an additional interest as that in which the famous 
Hildebrand (Gregory VII., 1073 — ^*^) "^^^ brought up as a 
boy, under the care of his uncle, who was abbot of the 
adjoining monastery. A massive cornice in these grounds 
is one of the few architectural fragments of ancient Rome 
existing on the Aventine. It may perhaps have belonged 
to the smaller temple of Diana in which Caius Gracchus 
took refuge, and in escaping from which, down the steep 
hillside, he sprained his ankle, and so was taken by his 
pursuers. Some buried houses were discovered and some 
precious vases brought to light, when Urban VIII. built the 
stately buttress walls which now support the hillside beyond 
the Priorato. 

The cliff below these convents is the supposed site of the 
cave of the giant Cacus, described by Virgil. 

"At specus et Caci detecta apparuit ingens 
Regia, et umbrosse penitus patuere cavernae 
Non secus, ac si qua penitus vi terra dehiscens 
Infernas referet sedea, et regna recludat 
Pallida, dis invisa ; superque immane barathrum 
Cernatur, trepidentque immisso lumine manes." 

^neid, lib. viii. 



2SO WALKS IN ROME. 

Hercules brought the oxen of Geryon to pasture in 
the valley between the Aventine and Palatine. Cacus 
issuing from his cave while their owner was asleep, carried 
off four of the bulls, dragging them up the steep side of 
the hill by their tails, that Hercules might be deceived by 
their foot-prints being reversed. Then he concealed them 
in his cavern, and barred the entrance with a rock. 
Hercules sought the stolen oxen everywhere, and when he 
could not find them, he was going away with the remainder. 
But as he drove them along the valley near the Tiber one 
of his oxen lowed, and when the stolen oxen in the cave 
heard that, they answered ; and Hercules, after rushing three 
times round the Aventine boiling with fury, shattered the 
stone which guarded the entrance of the cave with a mass 
of rock, and, though the giant vomited forth smoke and 
flames against him, he strangled him in his arms. Thus 
runs the legend, which is explained by Ampere. 

"Cacus habite une caverne de I'Aventin, montagne en tout temps 
mal famee, montagne anciennement herissee de rochers et couverte de 
forets, dont la foret Noevia, longtemps elle-meme un repaire de bandits, 
etait une dependance et fut un reste qui subsista dans les temps histo- 
riques. Ce Cacus etait sans doute un brigand celebre, dangereux pour 
les patres du voisinage dont il volait les troupeaux quand iis allaient 
paitre dans les pres situes au bord du Tibre et boire I'eau du fleuve, 
Les hauts faits de Cacus lui avaient donne cette celebrite qui, parmi les 
paysans romains, s'attache encore a ses pareils, et surtout le stratageme 
employe par lui probablement plus d'une fois pour derouter les bouviers 
des environs, en emmenant les animaux qu'il derobait, a maniere de 
caclier la direction de leurs pas. La caverne du bandit avait ete 
decouverte et forcee par quelque paire courageux, qui y avait penetre 
vaillamment, malgre la terreur que ce lieu souterrain et formidable 
inspirait, y avait surpris le voleur et I'avait etrangle. 

"Tel etait, je crois, le recit primitif ou il n'etait pas phis question 
d'Hercule que de Vulcain, et dans lequel Cacus n'etait pas mis a mort 
par un demi-dieu, mais par un certain Recaranus, patre vigoureux et de 
grande taille. A ces recits de bergers, qui allaient toujours exagerant 
les horreurs de I'antre de Cacus et la resistance desesperee de celui-ci, 
vinrent se meler peu a peu des circonstances merveilleuses." — Hist. 
Rom. i. 170. 

We must retrace our steps, as far as the summit of the 
hill towards the Palatine, and then turn to the right in 
order to reach the ugly obscure-looking Church of Sta. 
Frisca, founded by Pope Eutychianus in a.d. 280, but 
entirely modernised by Cardinal Giustiniani from designs 
of Carlo Lombardi, who encased its fine granite columns 



STA. PRISCA. 251 

in miserable stucco pilasters. Over the high altar is a 
picture by Passignano of the baptism of the saint, which 
is said to have taken place in the ancient crypt beneath 
the church, where an inverted Corinthian capital, — a relic 
of the temple of Diana which once occupied this site, — 
is shown as tlie font in which Sta. Prisca was baptised by 
St. Peter. 

Opening from the right aisle is a kind of terraced loggia 
with a peculiar and beautiful view. In the adjoining vine- 
yard are three arches of an aqueduct. 

" According to the old tradition, this church stands on the site of the 
house of Aquila and Priscilla, where St. Peter lodged when at Rome, 
and who are the same mentioned by St. Paul as tent-makers ; and here 
is shown the font, from which, according to the same tradition, St. 
Peter baptized the first Roman converts to Christianity. The altar- 
piece represents the baptism of Sta. Prisca, whose remaiiis being after- 
wards placed in the church, it has since borne her name. According to 
the legend, she was a Roman virgin of illustrious birth, who, at the age 
of thirteen, was exposed in the amphitheatre. A fierce lion was let loose 
upon her, but her youth and innocence disarmed the fury of the savage 
beast, which, instead of tearing her to pieces, humbly licked her feet ; — 
to the great consolation of Christians, and the confusion of idolaters. 
Being led back to prison, she was there beheaded. Sometimes she is 
represented with a lion, sometimes with an eagle, because it is related 
that an eagle watched by her body till it was laid in the grave ; for 
thus, says the story, was virgin innocence honoured by kingly bird as 
well as by kingly beast." — Mrs. Jameson. 

Opposite the door of this church is the entrance of the 
Vigna dei Gesuiti, a wild and beautiful vineyard occupying 
the greater part of this deserted hill, and extending as far 
as the Porta S. Paolo and the pyramid of Caius Cestius. 
Several farm-houses are scattered amongst the vines and 
fruit trees. There are beautiful views towards the Alban 
moimtains, and to the Pseudo-Aventine with its fortress- 
like convents. The ground is littered with fragments 
of marbles and alabaster, which lie unheeded among the 
vegetables, relics of unknown edifices which once ex- 
isted here. Just where the path in the vineyard descends 
a slight declivity towards S. Paolo, are the finest existing 
remains of the Walls of Servius Tulliiis* formed of large 
quadrilateral blocks of tufa, laid alternately long and cross- 
ways, as in the Etruscan buildings. The spot is beautiful, 

* Son o antiquaries attrib.^te thTn to the wall of the Aventine, built by Aiicus 
Martius. The arch, of coi\yR, is a additioq. 

8 



252 WALKS IN ROME. 

and overgrown by a luxuriance of wild mignonette and 
other flowers in the late spring. 

Descending to the valley beneatn Sta. Prisca, and crossing 
the lane which leads from the Via Appia to the Porta S. 
Paolo, we reach, on the side of the Pseudo-Aventine, the 
Church of S. Sabba, which is supposed to mairk the site of 
the Porta Randusculana of the walls of Servius Tullius. Its 
position is very striking, and its portico, built in a.d. 1200, 
is picturesque and curious. 

This church is of unknown origin, but is known to have 
existed in the time of St. Gregory the Great, and to have 
been one of the fourteen privileged abbacies of Rome. Its 
patron saint was St. Sabbas, an abbot of Cappadocia, who 
died at Jerusalem in a.d. 532. 

"The record of the artist Jacobus dei Cosmati, dated the third year of 
Innocent III. {1205), on the hntel of the mosaic-inlaid doorway, justifies 
us in classing this church among monuments of the thirteenth century. 
From its origin a Greek monastery, it was assigned by Lucius II., in 
1 141, to the Benedictines of the Cluny rule. An epigraph near the 
sacristy mentions a rebuilding either of the cloisters or church, in 1325, 
by an abbot Joannes ; and in 1465 the roof was renewed in woodwork 
by a cardinal, the nephew of Pius 11. 

"In 15 12 the Cistercians of Clairvaux were located here by Julius II. ; 
and some years later these buildings were given to the Germanic- 
Hungarian College. Amidst gardens and vineyards, approached by a 
solitary lane between hedgerows, this now deserted sanctuary has a 
certain affecting character in its forlornness. Save on Thursdays, when 
the German students are brought hither by their Jesuit professors to 
enliven the solitude by their sports and converse, we might never succeed 
in finding entrance to this quiet retreat of the monks of old. 

"Within the arched porch, through which we pass into an outer 
court, we read an inscription telling that here stood the house and 
oratory (called cella nova) of Sta, Sylvia, mother of St. Gregory the 
Great, whence the pious matron used daily to send a porridge of legumes 
to her son, while he inhabited his monastery on the Clivus Scauri, or 
northern ascent of the Coelian. Within that court formerly stood the 
cloistral buildings, of which little now remains. The fa9ade is re- 
markable for its atrium in two stories : the upper with a pillared arcade, 
probably of the fifteenth century ; the lower formerly supported by six 
porphyry columns, removed by Pius VI. to adorn the Vatican library, 
where they still stand. The porphyry statuettes of two emperors em- 
bracing, supposed either an emblem of the concord between the East and 
West, or the intended portraits of the co-reigning Constantine II. and 
Constans — a curious example of sculpture in its deep decline, and 
probably imported by Greek monks from Constantinople— project from 
two of those ancient columns." — Hemans' Mcdiczval Art. 

The interior of S. Sabba is in the basilica form. It 



STA. BALBINA. 253 

retains some fragments of inlaid pavements, some hand- 
some inlaid marble panels on either side of the high altar, 
and an ancient sarcophagus. The tribune has rude paintings 
of the fourteenth century — the Saviour between St. Andrew 
and St. Sabbas the Abbot ; and below the Crucifixion, the 
Madonna and the twelve Apostles. Beneath the tribune 
is a crypt, — and over its altar a beautifully ornamented 
disk with a Greek cross in the centre. 

Behind St. Sabbas is another delightful vineyard, but it is 
difficult to gain admittance. Here Flaminius Vacca de- 
scribes the discovery of a mysterious chamber without door 
or window, whose pavement was of agate and cornelian, 
and whose walls were plated with gilt copper ; but of this 
nothing remains.'^ 

To reach the remaining church of the Aventine, we 
have to turn to the Via Appia, and then follow the lane 
which leads up the hillside from the Baths of Caracalla to 
the Church of Sta. Balbina, whose picturesque red brick 
tower forms so conspicuous a feature, as seen against the 
long soft lines of the flat Campagna, in so many Roman 
views. It was erected in memory of Sta. Balbina, a 
virgin martyr (buried in Sta. Maria in Domenica), who suf- 
fered under Hadrian, a.d. 132. It contains the remains 
of an altar erected by Cardinal Barbo, in the old basilica 
of St. Peter's, and a fine tomb of Stefano Sordi, supporting 
a recumbent figure, and adorned with mosaics by one of the 
Cosmati. 

Adjoining this church Monsignor de Merode has recently 
established a house of correction for youthful offenders, to 
avert the moral result of exposing them to communication 
with other prisoners. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE VIA APPIA. 



The Porta Capena — Baths of Caracalla — Vigna Guidi — SS. Nereo ed 
Achilleo — SS. Sisto e Domenico — S. Cesareo (S. Giovanni in Oleo 

* Hemans* Story of Monuments in Rome, ii. 228. 



254 WALKS IN ROME. 

— S. Giovanni in Porta Latina) — Columbarium of the Freedmen of 
Octavia — Tomb of the Scipios — Cohimbarium of the Vigna Codini 
— Arch of Drusus — Porta S. Sebastiano — Tombs of Geta and Pris- 
cilla — Church of Domine Quo Vadis (Vigna Marancia)^Catacombs 
of S. Cahxtus, of S. Pretextatus, of the Jews, and SS. Nereo ed 
Achilleo — (Temple of Bacchus, i.e. S. Urbano — Grotto of Egeria 
— Temple of Divus Rediculus) — Basilica and Catacombs of S. 
Sebastiano — Circus of Maxentius — Temple of Romulus, son of 
Maxentius — Tomb of Cecilia Metella — Castle of the Caetani — 
Tombs of the Via Appia — Sta. Maria Nuova — Roma Vecchia — 
Casale Rotondo — Tor di Selce, &c. 

'T^HE Via Appia, called Regina Viarum by Statius, was 
^ begun B.C. 312, by the Censor Appius Claudius the 
Blind, " the most illustrious of the great Sabine and Pa- 
trician race, of whom he was the most remarkable repre- 
sentative." It was paved throughout, and during the first 
part of its course served as a kind of patrician cemetery, 
being bordered by a magnificent avenue of family tombs. 
It began at the Porta Capena, itself crossed by the 
Claudian aqueduct, which was due to the same great 
benefactor, — 

" Substitit ad veteres arcus madidamque Capenam," 
and was carried by Claudius across the Pontine Marshes 
as far as Capua, but afterwards extended to Brundusium. 

The site of the Porta Capena, so important as marking 
the commencement of the Appian Way, was long a dis- 
puted subject. The Roman antiquaries maintained that 
it was outside the present Walls, basing their opinion on 
the statement of St. Gregory, that the river Almo was in that 
Regio, and considering the Almo identical with a small 
stream which is crossed in the hollow about half a mile 
beyond the Porta S. Sebastiano, and which passes through 
the Valle Caffarelle, and falls into the Tiber near S. Paolo. 
This stream, however, which rises at the foot of the Alban 
Hills below the lake, divides into two parts about six miles 
from Rome, and its smaller division, after flowing close to 
the Porta San Giovanni, recedes again into the country, 
enters Rome near the Porta Metronia, a little behind the 
Church of S. Sisto, and passing through the Circus Maxi- 
mus, falls into the Tiber at the Pulchrum Littus, below the 
temple of Vesta. Close to the point where this, the smaller 
branch of the Almo, crosses the Via San Sebastiano, Mr. 
J. ri. Parker, in 1868-69, discovered some remains, on the 



PORTA CAPENA. 255 

• 
original line of walls, which he has identified, beyond doubt, 
as those of the Porta Capena^ whose position had been 
already proved by Ampere and other authorities. 

Close to the Porta Capena stood a large group of his- 
torical buildings, of which no trace remains. On the right 
of the gate was the temple of Mars : 

"Lux eadem Marti festa est; quern prospicit extra 
Appositum Tectse Porta Capena viae," 

Ovid, Fast. vi. 191. 

It is probably in allusion to this temple that Propertius 
says : 

** Arniaque quum tulero portae votiva Capense, 
Subscribam, salvo grata puella viro." 

Prop. iv. Eleg. 3. 

Martial alludes to a little temple of Hercules near this : 

" Capena grandi porta qua pluit gutta, 
Phrygiaeque Matris Almo qua lavat ferrum, 
Horatiorum qua viret sacer campus, 
Et qua pusilli fervet Herculis fanum." 

Mart. iii. Ep. 47. 

Near the gate also stood the tomb of the murdered 
sister of the Horatii,* with the temples of Honour and 
Virtue, vowed by Marcellus and dedicated by his son,t 
and a fountain, dedicated to Mercury: 

" Est aqua Mercurii portae vicina Capense ; 
Si juvat expertis credere, numen habet. 
Hue venit incinctus tunicas mercator, et urna 

Purus suffita, quam ferat, haurit aquam. 
Uda fit hinc laurus : lauro sparguntur ab uda 
Omnia, quee dominos sunt habitura novos." 

Ovid, Fast. v. 673. 

It was at the Porta Capena that the survivor of the 
Horatii met his sister. 

"Iloratius went home at the head of the army, bearing his triple 
spoils. But as they were drawing near to the Capenian gate, his sister 
came out to meet him. Now she had been betrothed in marriage to 
one of the Curiatii, and his cloak, which she had wrought with her own 
hands, Avas borne on the shoulders of her brother; and she knew it, 
and cried aloud, and wept for him she had loved. At the sight of her 
tears Horatius was so wrath that he drew his sword, and stabbed his 
sister to the heart ; and he said, ' So perish the Roman maiden who 
shall weep for her country's enemy ! ' " — Arnold's Hist, of Rome, i. 16. 

Among the many other historical scenes with which the 

• Livy, i. 10. t Livy, xxvii. 25 ; xxix. 11, 



256 WALKS IN ROME. 

Porta Capena is connected, we may remember that it 
was here that Cicero was received in triumph by the 
senate and people of Rome, upon his return from banish- 
ment B.C. 57. 



Two roads lead to the Via S. Sebastiano, one the Via 
S. Gregorio, which comes from the Coliseum beneath the 
arch of Constantine ; the other, the street which comes 
from the Ghetto, through the Circus Maximus, between the 
Palatine and Aventine. 

The first gate on the left, after the junction of these roads, 
is that of the vineyard of the monks of S. Gregorio, in 
which the site of the Porta Capena was found. The remains 
discovered have been reburied, owing to the indifference or 
jealousy of the government ; but the vineyard is worth 
entering on account of the picturesque view it possesses of 
the Palace of the Caesars. 

On the right, a lane leads up the Pseudo-Aventine to the 
Church of Sta. Balbina, described Chap. VIII. 

On the left, where the Via Appia crosses the brook of 
the Almo, now called Maranna, the Via di San Sisto 
Vecchio leads to the back of the Coelian behind S. Stefano 
Rotondo. Here, in the hollow, is a spring which modern 
archaeology has determined to be the true Fou?itain of 
Egcria, where Numa Pompilius is described as having his 
mysterious meetings with the nymph Egeria. The locaHty 
of this fountain was verified when that of the Porta Capena 
was ascertained, as it was certain that it was in the imme- 
diate neighbourhood of that gate, from a passage in the 
3d Satire of Juvenal, which describes, that Avhen he was 
waiting at the Porta Capena with Umbritius while the 
waggon was loading for his departure to Cumae, they 
rambled into the valley of Egeria, and Umbritius said, after 
speaking of his motives for leavmg Rome, " I could add 
other reasons to these, but my beasts summon me to move 
on, and the sun is setting. I must be going, for the 
muleteer has long been summoning me by the cracking of 
his whip." 

To this valley the oppressed race of the Jews was con- 
fined by Domitian, their furniture consisting of a basket 
and a wisp of hay : 



BATHS OF CARACAL LA. 257 

**Nunc sacri foiitis nemiis et delubra locantur 
Judseis, quorum cophinus foenumque supellex." 

Juvenal, Sat. iii, 13. 

On the right, are the Baths of Caracalla, the largest mass 
of ruins in Rome, except the Cohseum ; consisting for the 
most part of huge shapeless walls of red and orange- 
coloured brickwork, framing vast strips of blue sky, and 
tufted with shrubs and flowers. These baths, which could 
accommodate 1600 bathers at once, were begun in a.d. 212, 
by Caracalla, continued by Heliogabalus, and finished under 
Alexander Severus. They covered a space of 2,625,000 
square yards — a size which made Ammianus Marcellinus 
say that the Roman baths were like provinces — and they 
were supplied with water by the Antonine Aqueduct, which 
was brought hither for that especial purpose from the 
Claudian, over the Arch of Drusus. 

Antiquaries have amused themselves by identifying dif- 
ferent chambers, to which, with considerable uncertainty, 
the names of Calidarium, Laconicum, Tepidarium, Frigi- 
darium, &c., have been affixed. 

The habits of luxury and inertion which were introduced 
with the magnificent baths of the emperors were among the 
principal causes of the decline and fall of Rome. Thou- 
sands of the Roman youth frittered away their hours in 
these magnificent halls, which were provided with every- 
thing which could gratify the senses. Poets were wont to 
recite their verses to those who were reclining in the baths. 

" In medio qui 

Scripta foro recitent, sunt multi, — quique lavantes: 
Suave locus voci resonat conclusus." 

Horace, Sat. i. 4. 

*' These Tker7n(E of Caracalla, which were one mile in circumference, 
and open at stated hours for the indiscriminate service of the senators 
and the people, contained above sixteen hundred seats of marble. The 
walls of the lofty apartments Avere covered with curious mosaics that 
imitated the art of the pencil in elegance of design and in the variety of 
their colours. The Egyptian granite Avas beautifully encrusted with the 
precious green marble of Numidia. The perpetual stream of hot water 
was poured into the capacious basons through so many wide mouths of 
bright and massy silver ; and the meanest Roman could purchase, with 
a small copper coin, the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury 
which might excite the eaivy of the kings of Asia. From these stately 
palaces issued forth a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeian';, without 
shoes and without mantle ; who loitered away whole days in the street 
or Forum, to hear news and to hold disputes; who dissipated, ia 



258 WALKS IN ROME. 

extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their wives and children; 
and spent the hours of the night in the indulgence of gross and vulgar 
sensuality." — Gibbon. 

In the first great hall was found, in 1824, the immense 
mosaic pavement of the pugilists, now in the Lateran 
museum. Endless works of art have been discovered here 
from time to time, among them the best of the Farnese 
collection of statues, — the Bull, the Hercules, and the Flora, 
— which were dug up in 1534, when Paul III. carried off 
all the still remaining marble decorations of the baths to 
use for the Farnese Palace. The last of the pillars to be 
removed from hence is that which supports the statue of 
Justice in the Piazza Sta. Trinita at Florence. 

A winding stair leads to the top of the walls, which are 
worth ascending, as well for the idea which you there receive 
of the vast size of the ruins, as for the lovely views of the 
Campagna, which are obtained between the bushes of 
lentiscus and filaroea with which they are fringed. It was 
seated on these walls that Shelley wrote his " Prometheus 
Unbound." 

"This poem was chiefly written upon the mountainous ruins of the 
baths of Caracalla, among the flowery glades and thickets of odoriferous 
blossoming trees which are extended in ever-winding labyrinths upon its 
immense platforms and dizzy arches suspended in the air. The bright 
blue sky of Rome, and the effect of the vigorous awakening spring in 
that divinest climate, and the new life with which it drenches the spirits 
even to intoxication, were the inspiration of the drama." — Preface to the 
Prometheus. 

"Maintenant les murailles sont nues, sauf quelques fragments de 
chapiteaux oublies par la destruction ; mais elles conservent ce que 
seules des mains de geant pourraient leur oter, leur masse ecrasante, la 
grandeur de leurs aspects, la sublimite de leurs i-uines. On ne regrette 
rien quand on contemple ces enormes et pittoresque debris, baignes k 
midi par une ardente lumiere ou se remplissant d' ombres a la tombee de 
la nuit, s'elan^ant a une immense hauteur vers un ciel eblouissant, ou 
se dressant, mornes et melancoliques, sous un ciel grisatre, — ou bien, 
lorsque, montant sur la plate-forme inegale, crevassce, couverte d'ar- 
bustes et tapissee de gazon, on voit, comme du haut d'une coUine, 
d'un cote se derouler la campagne romaine et le merveilleux horizon de 
montagnes qui la termine, de I'autre apparailre, ainsi qu'une montagne 
de plus, le dome de Saint-Pierre, la seule des oeuvres d'homme qui 
ait quelque chose de la grandeur des oeuvres de Dieu."— ^w/cVr, Emp. 
ii. 286. 

The name of the lane which leads to the baths ( Via 
air A?itoniafia) recalls the fact that, '' with a vanity which 
seems like mockery, Caracalla dared to bear the name 



SS. NEREO ED ACHILLEO, 259 

of Antoninus," which was always dear to the Roman 
people. 

Passing under the wall of the government-garden for 
raising shrubs for the public walks, a door on the left of the 
Via Appia, with a sculptured marble frieze above it, is that 
of Guidi, the antiquity vendor, who has a small museum 
here of splendid fragments of marble and alabaster for sale. 
Opposite is the Vigna of Signor Guidi, who has unearthed 
a splendid mosaic pavement of Tritons riding on dolphins, 
and who has here also a collection of antique fragments to 
be disposed of 

On the right, is SS. Nereo ed Achilleo, a most interesting 
little church. The tradition runs that St. Peter, going to execu- 
tion, let drop here one of the bandages of his wounds, and 
that the spot was marked by the early Christians with an 
oratory, which bore the name of Fasciola. Nereus and 
Achilles, eunuchs in the service of Clemens Flavins and 
Flavia Domitilla (members of the imperial family exiled to 
Pontia under Diocletian), having suffered martyrdom at 
Terracina, their bodies were transported here in 524 by 
John I., when the oratory was enlarged into a church, which 
was restored under Leo III., in 795. The church was 
rebuilt in the sixteenth century, by Cardinal Baronius, who 
took his title from hence. In his work he desired that the 
ancient basilica character should be carefully carried out, 
and all the ancient ornaments of the church were preserved 
and re-erected. His anxiety that his successors should not 
meddle with or injure these objects of antiquity is shown by 
the inscription on a marble slab in the tribune : 

** Presbyter, Card. Successor quisqiiis fueris, rogo te, per gloriam Dei, 
et per merita horum martyrum, nihil demito, nihil minuito, nee mutato ; 
restitutam antiquitatem pie servato ; sic Deus martyrum suorum precibus 
semper adjuvet ! " 

The chancel is raised and surrounded by an inlaid 
marble screen. Instead of ambones there are two plain 
marble reading-desks for the epistle and gospel. The 
altar is inlaid, and has " transennse," or a marble grating, 
through which the tomb of the saints Nereus and Achilles 
may be seen, and through which the faithful might pass 
their handkerchiefs to touch it. Behind, in the semicircular 
choir, is an ancient episcopal throne, supported by lions, 
and ending in a gothic gable. Upon it part of the twenty- 



26o WALKS IN ROME. 

eighth homily of St. Gregory was engraved by Baronius, 
under the impression that it was dehvered thence, — though 
it was really first read in the catacomb, whence the bodies 
of the saints were not yet removed. All these decorations 
are of the restoration under Leo III., in the eighth century. 
Of the same period are the mosaics on the arch of the 
tribune (partly painted over in later times), representing, in 
the centre, the Transfiguration (the earliest instance of the 
subject being treated in art), with the Annunciation on one 
side, and the Madonna and Child attended by angels on 
the other. 

It is worth while remarking that when the relics of Flavia 
Domitilla (who was niece of Vespasian) and of Nereus and 
Achilles were brought hither from the catacomb on the 
Via Ardeatina, which bears the name of the latter, they 
were first escorted in triumph to the Capitol, and made to 
pass under the imperial arches which bore as inscriptions : 
" The senate and the Roman people to Sta. Flavia Domi- 
tilla, for having brought more honour to Rome by her death 
than her illustrious relations by their works." . . "To 
Sta. Flavia Domitilla, and to the Saints Nereus and Achilles, 
the excellent citizens who gained peace for the Christian 
republic at the price of their blood." 

Opposite, on the left, is a courtyard leading to the Church 
of S. Sisto, with its celebrated convent, long deserted on 
account of malaria. 

It was here that St. Dominic first resided in Rome, and 
collected one hundred monks under his rule, before he was 
removed to Sta. Sabina by Honorius III. After he went to 
the Aventine, it was decided to utilize this convent by 
collecting here the various Dominican nuns, who had been 
living hitherto under very lax discipline, and allowed to 
leave their convents, and reside in their own families. The 
nuns of Sta. Maria in Trastevere resisted the order, and only 
consented to remove on condition of bringing with them a 
Madonna picture attributed to St. Luke, hoping that the 
Trasteverini would refuse to part with their most cher- 
ished treasure. St. Dominic obviated the difficulty by 
going to fetch the picture himself at night, attended by two 
cardinals, and a bare-footed, torch-bearing multitude. 

*' On Ash-Wednesday, 12 18, the abbess and some of her niuis went 
to take possession of their new monastery, and being in the chapter- 



S. SISTO. 261 

house with St. Dominic and Cardinal Stefano di Fossa Nuova, sud- 
denly there came in one tearing his hair, and making great outcries, for 
the young Lord Napoleon Orsini, nephew of the cardinal, had been 
thrown from his horse, and killed on the spot. The cardinal fell 
speechless into the arms of Dominic, and the women and others who 
were present were filled with grief and horror. They brought the body 
of the youth into the chapter-house, and laid it before the altar ; and 
Dominic, having prayed, turned to it, saying, * O adolescens Napoleo, 
in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi tibi dico surge,' and thereupon 
he arose sound and whole, to the unspeakable wonder of all present." — 
Jameson s^ Monastic Orders. 

After being convinced by this miracle of the divine 
mission of St. Dominic, forty nuns settled at S. Sisto, 
promising never more to cross its threshold.'^ 

There is very little remaining of the ancient S. Sisto, 
except the campanile, which is of 1500. But the vaulted 
Chapter-House., now dedicated to St. Dominic, is well worth 
visiting. It has recently been covered with frescoes by the 
Padre Besson, — himself a Dominican monk, — who received 
his commission from Father Mullooly, Prior of S. Clemente, 
the Irish Dominican convent, to which S. Sisto is now 
annexed. The three principal frescoes represent three 
miracles of St. Dominic — in each case of raising from the 
dead. One represents the resuscitation of a mason of the 
new monastery, who had fallen from a scaffold ; another, 
that of a child in a wild and beautiful Italian landscape ; 
the third, the restoration of Napoleone Orsini on this spot, 
— the mesmeric upspringing of the lifeless youth being most 
powerfully represented. The whole chapel is highly pic- 
turesque, and effective in colour. Of two inscriptions, one 
commemorates the raising of Orsini ; the other, a prophecy 
of St, Dominic, as to the evil end of two monks who de- 
serted their convent. 

Just beyond S. Sisto, where the Via della Ferratella 
branches off on the left to the Lateran, stands a small 
sediculum, or Shrine of the Lares., with brick niches for 
statues. 

Further, on the right, standing back from a kind of 
piazza, adorned with an ancient granite column, is the 
Church of S. Cesareo, which already existed in the time 
of St. Gregory the Great, but was modernized under 
Clement VII. (1523-34). Its interior retains many of its 
ancient features. The pulpit is one of the most exquisite 

* Hemans' Mediaeval Sacred Art. 



a62 WALKS IN ROME. 

specimens of church decoration in Rome, and is covered 
with the most deHcate sculpture, interspersed with mosaic ; 
the emblems of the Evangelists are introduced in the 
carving of the panels. The high-altar is richly en- 
crusted with mosaics, probably by the Cosmati family; 
tiny owls form part of the decorations of the capitals of 
its pillars. Beneath is a " confession," where two angels 
are drawing curtains over the tomb of the saint. The 
chancel has an inlaid marble screen. In the tribune 
is an ancient episcopal throne, once richly ornamented with 
mosaics. 

In this church St. Sergius was elected to the papal throne, 
in 68/ ; and here, also, an Abbot of SS. Vincenzo ed 
Anastasio was elected in 1145, as Eugenius III., and was 
immediately afterwards forced by the opposing senate to 
fly to Montecelli, and then to the Abbey of Farfa, where 
his consecration took place. 

Part of the palace of the titular cardinal of S. Cesareo 
remains in the adjoining garden, with an interesting loggia 
of c. 1200. 

In this neighbourhood was the Piscina Fublica, which 
gave a name to the twelfth Region of the city. It was used 
for learning to swim, but all trace of it had disappeared 
before the time of Festus, whose date is uncertain, but who 
lived before the end of the fourth century — 

' *' In thermas fugio : sonas ad aurem, 
Piscinam peto : non licet natare." 

Martial^ iii. Ep. 44. 



Here a lane turns on the left, towards the ancient Porta 
Latina (through which the Via Latina led to Capua), now 
closed. 

In front of the gate is a little chapel, of the sixteenth 
century, called S. Giovanni in Oleo, decorated with indifferent 
frescoes, on the spot where St. John is said to have been 
thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil (under Domitian), 
from which " he came forth as from a refreshing bath." It 
is the suffering in the burning oil which gave St. John the 
palm of a martyr, with which he is often represented in 
art. The festival of "St. John ante Port. Lat." (May 6) 
is preserved in the English Church Calendar. 



COLUMBARIUM, 263 

On the left, is the Church of S. Giovanni a Porta Latina, 
built in 1 190 by Celestine III. 

In spite of many modernizations, the last by Cardinal 
Rasponi in 1686, this building retains externally more of 
its ancient character than most Roman churches, in its fine 
campanile and the old brick walls of the nave and apse, 
decorated with terra-cotta friezes. The portico is entered 
by a narrow arch resting on two granite columns. The 
entrance-door and the altar have the peculiar mosaic 
ribbon decoration of the Cosmati, of 1190. The frescoes 
are all modern ; in the tribune, are the deluge and the 
baptism of Christ, — the type and antitype. Of the ten 
columns, eight are simple and of granite, two are fluted 
and of porta-santa, showing that they were not made for 
the church, but removed from some pagan building — pro- 
bably from the temple of Ceres and Proserpine. Near 
the entrance is a very picturesque marble Well, like those 
so common at Venice and Padua, decorated with an in- 
tricate pattern of rich carving. 

In the opposite vineyard, behind the chapel of the Oleo, 
very picturesquely situated under the Aurelian Wall, is the 
Columbarium of the Freedme7i of Octavia. A columbarium 
was a tomb containing a number of cinerary urns in niches 
like pigeon-holes, whence the name. Many columbaria 
were held in common by a great number of persons, and 
the niches could be obtained by purchase or inheritance ; 
in other cases, the heads of the great houses possessed 
whole columbaria for their families and their slaves. In the 
present instance the columbarium is more than usually 
decorated, and, though much smaller, it is far more worth 
seeing than the columbaria which it is the custom to visit 
immediately upon the Appian Way. One of the cippi, 
above th ' staircase, is beautifully decorated with shells and 
mosaic. Below, is a chamber, whose vault is delicately 
painted with vines and little Bacchi gathering in the 
vintage. Round the walls are arranged the urns, some of 
them in the form of temples, and very beautifully designed, 
others merely pots sunk into the wall, with conical lids, 
like pipkins let into a kitchen-range. A beautiful vase 
of lapis-lazuli found here has been transferred to the 
Vatican. 



264 WALICS IN ROME. 

Proceeding along the Via Appia, on the left by a tall 
cypress (No. 13) is the entrance to the To7nb of the Scipios, a 
small catacomb in the tufa rock, discovered in 1780, from 
which the famous sarcophagus of L. Scipio Barbatus, and a 
bust of the poet Ennius,* were removed to the Vatican 
by Pius VII. 

' ' The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now ; 
The very sepulchres lie tenantless 
Of their heroic dwellers." 

Childe Harold. 

The contadino at the neighbouring farmhouse provides 
lights, with which one can visit a labyrinth of steep narrow 
passages, some of which still retain inscribed sepulchral 
slabs. Among the Scipios whose tombs have been dis- 
covered here were Lucius Scipio Barbatus and his son, the 
conqueror of Corsica ; Aula Cornelia, wife of Cneius Scipio 
Hispanis ; a son of Scipio Africanus ; Lucius Cornelius, 
son of Scipio Asiaticus ; Cornelius Scipio Hispanis and 
his son Lucius Cornelius. At the further end of these 
passages, and now, like them, subterranean, may be seen 
the pediment and arched entrance of the tomb towards 
the Via Latina. " It is uncertain whether Scipio Afri- 
canus was buried at Liternum or in the family tomb. In 
the time of Livy monuments to him were extant in both 
places."! 

There is a beautiful view towards Rome from the vine- 
yard above the tomb. 

A little further on, left (No. 14), is the entrance of the 
Vigna Codhii (a private garden with an extortionate cus- 
tode), containing three interesting Columbaria. Two of 
these are large square vaults, supported by a central pillar, 
which, as well as the walls, is perforated by niches for urns. 
The third has three vaulted passages. 

We now reach the Arch of Drusus. On its summit are 
the remains of the aqueduct by which Caracalla carried 
water to his baths. The arch once supported an eques- 
trian statue of Drusus, two trophies, and a seated female 
figure representing Germany. 

* This bust has been supposed to represent the poet Ennius, the friend of Scipjc 
Africanus, because his last request was that he might be buried by his side. Even ia 
the time of Cicero, Ennius was believed to be buried in the tomb of the Scipios. 
" Carus fuit Africano superiori noster Ennius : itaque etiam in sepulchro Scipionum 
putatur is esse constitutus 5 niarmore." — Ck. Orat. pro Arch. Poeta. 

t Dyers Hist, of the City of Rome. 



PORTA SAN SEBASTIANO. 265 

The Arch of Drusus was decreed by tlie senate in honour 
of the second son of the empress Livia, by her first 
husband, Tiberius Nero, He was father of Germanicus 
and the emperor Claudius, and brother of Tiberius. He 
died during a campaign on the Rhine, B.C. 9, and was 
brought back to be buried by his step-father Augustus in 
his own mausoleum. His virtues are attested in a poem 
ascribed to Pedo Albinovanus. 

''This arch, ' Marmoreum arcum cum tropreo Appia Via' (Suet, i), is, 
with the exception of the Pantheon, the most perfect existing monument 
of Augustan architecture. It is heavy, plain, and narrow, with all the 
dignified but stern simplicity which belongs to the character of its age." 
— Merivale. 

"It is hard for one who loves tlie very stones of Rome, to pass over 
all the thoughts which arise in his mind, as he thinks of the great 
Apostle treading the rude and massive pavement of the Appian Way, 
and passing under that Arch of Drusus at the Porta S. Sebastiano, 
toiling up the Capitoline Hill past ihe Tabularium of the Capitol, 
dwelling in his hired house in the Via Lata or elsewhere, imprisoned in 
those painted caves in the Praetorian Camp, and at last pouring out his 
blood for Christ at the Tre Fontane, On the road to Ostia." — Dean 
Alford^s Study of the New Testament, p. 335. 

The Porta San Sebastiano has two fine semicircular 
towers of the Aurelian wall, resting on a basement of 
marble blocks, probably plundered from the tombs on the 
Via Appia. Under the arch is a gothic inscription relating 
to the repulse of some unknown invaders. 

It was here that the senate and people of Rome re- 
ceived in state the last triumphant procession which has 
entered the city by the Via Appia, that of Marc-Antonio 
Colonna, after the victory of I^epanto in 157 1. As in the 
processions of the old Roman generals, the children of 
the conquered prince were forced to adorn the triumph of 
the victor, who rode into Rome attended by all the Roman 
nobles, "in abito di grande formalita,^' * preceded by the 
standard of the fleet. 

From the gate, the Clivus Martis (crossed by the railway 
to Civita Vecchia) descends into the valley of the Almo, 
where antiquaries formerly placed the Porta Capena. On 
the hillside stood a Temple of Mars, vowed in the Gallic 
war, and dedicated by T. Quinctius the " duumvir sacris 
faciundis," in b.c. 387. No remains exist of this temple. 
It was " approached from the Via Capena by a portico, 

* Coppi, Memorie Colonnesi, p. 342. 



266 IVALKS IN ROME. 

which must have rivalled in length the celebrated portico at 
Bologna extending to the church of the Madonna di S. 
Luca."* Near this, a temple was erected to Tempestas in 
B.C. 260, by L, Cornelius Scipio, to commemorate the 
narrow escape of his fleet from shipwreck off the coast of 
Sardinia. t Near this, also, the poet Terence owned a small 
estate of twenty acres, presented^ to him by his friend 
Scipio Emilianus.;]: After crossing the brook, we pass 
between two conspicuous tombs. That on the left is the 
To7}ib of Geta, son of Septimius Severus, the murdered 
brother of Caracalla; that on the right is the To7nb of 
Priscilta, wife of Abascantius, a favourite freedman of 
Domitian. 

•* Est locus, ante urbem, qua primum nascitur ingens 
Appia, quaque Italo gemitus Alrnone Cybele 
Ponit, et Idoeos jam non reminiscitur amnes. 
Hie te Sidonio velatam molliter ostro 
Eximius conjux (nee enim fumantia busta 
Clamoremque rogi potuit perferre), beato 
Composuit, Priseilla, toi-o." 

Statius, lib. v. Sylv. i. 222. 

Just beyond this, the Via Ardeatina branches off on the 
right, passing, after about two miles, the picturesque Vigna 
Marancia, a pleasant spot, with fine old pines and cypresses. 

Where the roads divide, is the Chiwch of Domine Quo 
Vadis, containing a copy of the celebrated footprint said 
to have been left here by Our Saviour : the original being 
removed to S. Sebastiano. 

"After the burning of Rome, Nero threw upon the Christians the 
accusation of having fired the city. This was .the origin of the first 
persecution, in which many perished by terrible and hitherto unheard-of 
deaths. The Christian converts besought Peter not to expose his life. 
As he fled along the Appian Way, about two miles from the gates, he 
was met by a vision of our Saviour travelling towards the city. Struck 
with amazement, he exclaimed, 'Lord, whither goest thou?' to which 
the Saviour, looking upon him with a mild sadness, replied, 'I go to 
Rome to be crucified a second time,' and vanished. Peter, taking this 
as a sign that he was to submit himself to the sufferings prepared for 
him, immediately turned back to the city.§ Michael Angelo's famous 
statue, now in the Church of Sta. Maria sopra Miner\'a, is supposed to 
represent Christ as he appeared to St. Peter on thjs occasion. A cast 
or copy of it is in the little church of ' Domine, quo vadis?' 

" It is surprising that this most beautiful, picturesque, and, to my 

* See Dyer's Hist, of the City of Rome, p. 85. t I^id. p. 97. 

X Ibid. p. 122. § This story is told by St. Ambrose. 



CATACOMBS OF ST. CALIXTUS. 267 

fancy, sublime legend, has been so seldom treated ; and never, as it 
sieems to me, in a manner worthy of its capabilities and high signifi- 
cance. It is seldom that a story can be told by two figures, and these 
two figures placed in such grand and dramatic contrast ; — Christ in His 
serene majesty, and radiant with all the joy of beatitude, yet with an 
expression of gentle reproach ; the Apostle at his feet arrested in his 
flight, amazed, and yet filled with a trembling joy ; and for the back- 
ground the wide Campagna, or towering walls of imperial Rome." — 
Mrs. Jameson.* 

Beyond the church is a second " Bivium," or cross-ways, 
where a lane on the left leads up the Valle Caffarelle. 
Here, feeling an uncertainty which was the crossing where 
Our Saviour appeared to St. Peter, the English Cardinal 
Pole erected a second tiny chapel of " Domine Quo Vadis," 
which remains to this day. 

On the left, is the Columbarium of the Freedme7i of Augustus 
and Livia, divided into three chambers, but despoiled of 
its adornments. Other Columbaria near this are assigned 
to the Volusii, and the Caecilii. 

Over the wall on the left of the Via Appia now hangs in 
profusion the rare yellow-berried ivy. Many curious plants 
are to be found on these old Roman walls. Their com- 
monest parasite, the Pellitory — ^^ herba parietina^' calls to 
mind the nickname given to the Emperor Trajan in derision 
of his passion for inscribing his name upon the walls of 
Roman buildings which he had merely restored, as if he 
were their founder;! a passion in which the popes have 
since largely participated. 

We now reach (on the right) the entrance of the Cata- 
combs of St. Calixtus. 

(The Catacombs (except those at S. Sebastiano) can only be visited in 
company of a guide. For most of the Catacombs it is necessary to 
obtain a permesso at the office of the Cardinal-Vicar, 70 Via della 
Scrofa, before 12 A.M. ; upon which a day (generally Sunday) is fixed, 
which must be adhered to. The Catacombs of St. Calixtus are some- 
times superficially shown without a special /^r;;z^j-j-(?. It may be well for 
the visitor to provide himself with tapers — ceriitt.) 

All descriptions of dangers attending a visit to the Cata- 
combs, if accompanied by a guide, and provided with 
" cerini," are quite imaginary. Neither does the visitor ever 
suffer from cold ; the temperature of the Catacombs is mild 

* This story is represented in one of the ancient tapestries in the cathedral of Anagni. 
t Amm. Marcell. lib. xxvii. c. 



268 WALKS IN ROME. 

and warm ; the vaults are almost always dry, and the air 
pure. 

"The Roman Catacombs — a name consecrated by long usage, but 
having no etymological meaning, and not a very determinate geo- 
graphical one — are a vast labyrinth of galleries excavated in the bowels 
of the earth in the hills around the Eternal City ; not in the hills on 
which the city itself was built, but in those beyond the walls. Their 
extent is enormous ; not as to the amount of superficial soil which they 
underlie, for they rarely, if ever, pass beyond the third mile-stone from 
the city, but in the actual length of their gallei-ies ; for these are often 
excavated on various levels, or piani, three, four, or even five — one 
above the other ; and they cross and recross one another, sometimes at 
short intervals, on each of these levels ; so that, on the whole, there are 
certainly not less than 350 miles of them ; that is to say, if stretched out 
in one continuous line, they would extend the whole length of Italy 
itself. The galleries are from two to four feet in width, and vary in 
height according to the nature of the rock in which they are dug. The 
walls on both sides are pierced with horizontal niches, like shelves in a 
bookcase or berths in a steamer, and every niche once contained one or 
more dead bodies. At various intervals this succession of shelves is 
interrupted for a moment, that room may be made for a doorway 
opening into a small chamber ; and the walls of these chambers are 
generally pierced with graves in the same way as the galleries. 

" These vast excavations once formed the ancient Christian cemeteries 
of Rome ; they were begun in apostolic times, and continued to be 
used as burial-places of the faithful till the capture of the city by Alaric 
in the year 410. In the third century, the Roman Church numbered 
twenty-five or twenty-six of them, corresponding to the number of her 
titles, or parishes, within the city ; and besides these, there are about 
twenty others, of smaller dimensions, isolated monuments of special 
martyrs, or belonging to this or that private family. Originally they all 
belonged to private families or individuals, the villas or gardens in which 
they were dug being the property of wealthy citizens who had embraced 
the faith of Christ, and devoted of their substance to His service. Hence 
their most ancient titles were taken merely from the names of their 
lawful owners, many of which still survive. Lucina, for example, who 
lived in the days of the Apostles, and others of the same family, or at 
least of the same name, who lived at various periods in the next two 
centuries ; Priscilla, also a contemporary of the Apostles ; Flavia 
Domitilla, niece of Vespasian ; Commodilla, whose property lay on the 
Via Ostiensis ; Cyriaca, on the Via Tiburtina ; Pretextatus, on the Via 
Appia ; Pontiano, on the Via Portuensis ; and the Jordani, Maximus 
and Thraso, all on the Via Salaria Nova. These names are still 
attached to the various catacombs, because they were originally begun 
upon the land of those who bore them. Other catacombs are known by 
the names of those who presided over their formation, as that of St. 
Calixtus, on the Via Appia ; or St. Mark, on the Via Ardeatina ; or 
of the principal martyrs who were buried in them, as SS. Hermes, 
Basilla, Protus, and Hyacinthus, on the Via Salaria Vetus ; or, lastly, 
by some peculiarity of their position, as ad Cataaonbas on the Via 
Appia, and ad duns Laui-os on the Via Labicana, 



CHARACTER OF THE CATACOMBS. 269 

** It has always been agreed among men of learning who have had an 
opportunity of examining these excavations, that they were used exclu- 
sively by the Christians as places of burial and of holding religious 
assemblies. Modern research has now placed it beyond a doubt, that 
they were also originally designed for this purpose and for no other : 
that they were not deserted sand-pits [areiiaria:) or quarries, adapted to 
Christian uses, but a development, with important modifications, of a 
form of sepulchre not altogether unknown even among the heathen 
families of Rome, and in common use among the Jews both in Rome 
and elsewhere. 

" At first, the work of making the Catacombs was done openly, with- 
out let or hindrance, by the Christians ; the entrances to them were 
public on the high-road or on the hill-side, and the galleries and chambers 
were freely decorated with paintings of a sacred character. But early 
in the third century, it became necessary to withdraw them as much as 
possible from the public eye ; new and often difficult entrances were 
now effected in the recesses of deserted arejtarice, and even the liberty 
of Christian art was cramped and fettered, lest what was holy should 
fall under the profane gaze of the unbaptized. 

" Each of these burial-places was called in ancient times either 
hypogcEum, i. e. generically, a subterranean place, or ccenieterium, a 
sleeping-place, a new name of Christian origin which the pagans could 
only repeat, probably without understanding; sometimes also 7nar- 
tyrium, or confessio (its Latin equivalent), to signify that it was the 
burial-place of martyrs or confessoi-s of the faith. An ordinary grave 
was called loais or lociilus. if it contained a single body ; or bisomiim, 
trisomum^ or quadrisomtiin^ if it contained two, three, or four. The 
graves were dug \iy fossores^ and burial in them was called depositio. The 
galleries do not seem to have had any specific name ; but the chambers 
•were called ctibiaila. In most of these chambers, and sometimes also 
in the galleries themselves, one or more tombs are to be seen of a more 
elaborate kind ; a long oblong ckasse, like a sarcophagus, either hol- 
lowed out in the rock or built up of masonry, and closed by a heavy 
slab of marble lying horizontally on the top. The niche over tombs of 
this kind was of the same length as the grave, and generally vaulted in a 
semicircular form, whence they were called curosolia. Sometimes, 
however, the niche retained the rectangular form, in which case there 
was no special name for it, but for distinction's sake we may be 
allowed to call it a table-tomb. Those of the aTcosolia, which were 
also the tomb of martyrs, were used on the anniversaries of their 
deaths {A^atalitia, or birthdays) as altars whereon the holy mys- 
teries were celebrated ; hence, whilst some of the cubicula were only 
family-vaults, others were chapels, or places of public assembly. 
It is probable that the holy mysteries were celebrated also in the private 
vaults, on the anniversaries of the deaths of their occupants ; and each 
one was sufficiently large in itself for use on these private occasions ; but 
in order that as many as possible might assist at the public celebra- 
tions, two, three, or even four of the cubicula were" often made close 
together, all receiving light and air through one shaft or air-hole 
{hwiinare), pierced through the superincumbent soil up to the open 
air. In this way as many as a hundred persons might be collected in 
some parts of the catacombs to assist at the same act of public worship ; 



270 WALKS IN ROME. 

whilst a still larger number might have been dispersed in the cicbiada of 
neighbouring galleries, and received there the bread of life brought to 
them by the assistant priests and deacons. Indications of this arrange- 
ment are not only to be found in ancient ecclesiastical -writings ; they 
may still be seen in the very walls of the catacombs themselves, epis- 
copal chairs, chairs for the presiding deacon or deaconess, and benches 
for the faithful, having formed part of the original design Avhen the 
chambers were hewn out of the living rock, and still remaining where 
they M'ere first made." — Roma Sotterranea, Northcote and Broimtloiv. 

*'To our classic associations, Rome was still, under Trajan and 
the Antonines, the city of the Caesars, the metropolis of pagan 
idolatry — in the pages of her poets and historians we still linger 
among the triumphs of the Capitol, the shows of the Coliseum ; or if we 
read of a Christian being dragged before the tribunal, or exposed to the 
beasts, we think of him as one of a scattered community, few in number, 
spiritless in action, and politically insignificant. But all this while 
there was living beneath the visible an invisible Rome — a population 
unheeded, unreckoned — thought of vaguely, vaguely spoken of, and 
with the familiarity and indifference that men feel who live on a 
volcano — yet a population strong-hearted, of quick impulses, nei'ved 
alike to suffer or to die, and in number, resolution, and physical force 
sufficient to have hurled their oppressors from the throne of the world, 
had they not deemed it their duty to kiss the rod, to love their enemies, 
to bless those that cursed them, and to submit, for their Redeemer's 
sake, to the ' powers that be.' Here, in these ' dens and caves of the 
earth,' they lived ; here they died — a 'spectacle' in their lifetime 'to 
men and angels,' and in their death a ' triumph ' to mankind — a triumph 
of which the echoes still float around the walls of Rome, and over the 
desolate Campagna, while those that once thrilled the Capitol are 
silenced, and the walls that returned them have long since cmmbled 
into dust." — Lord Lindsay s Christian Art, i. 4. 

The name Catacombs is modern, having originally been 
only applied to S. Sebastiano " ad catacumbas." The early 
Christians called their burial-places by the Greek name 
Coevietei-ia, sleeping-places. Almost all the catacombs are 
between the first and third mile -stones from the Aurelian 
wall, to which point the city extended before the wall itself 
was built. This was in obedience to the Roman law which 
forbade burial within the precincts of the city. 

The fact that the Christians were always anxious not to 
burn their dead, but to bury them, in these rock-hewn 
sepulchres, was probably owing to the remembrance that 
our Lord was himself laid " in a new tomb hewn out of 
the rock," and perhaps also for this reason the bodies 
were wrapt in fine linen cloths, and buried with pre- 
cious spices, of which remains have been found in the 
tombs. 



CATACOMB OF ST. CALIXTUS. 271 

The Catacomb which is known as St. Calixtus, is 
composed of a number of catacombs, once distinct, but 
now joined together. Such were those of Sta. Lucina ; 
of Anatolia, daughter of the consul yEmilianus ; and of 
Sta. Soteris, " a virgin of the family to which St. Ambrose 
belonged in a later generation," and who was buried " in 
coemeterio suo," a.d. 304. The passages of these catacombs 
were gradually united with those which originally belonged 
to the cemetery of Calixtus. 

The high mass of ruin which meets our eyes on first 
entering the vineyard of St. Calixtus, is a remnant of the 
tomb of the Csecilii, of which family a number of epitaphs 
have been found. Beyond this is another ruin, supposed 
by Marangoni to have been the basilica which St. Damasus 
provided for his own burial and that of his mother and 
sister; which Padre Marchi believed to be the church 
of St. Mark and St. Marcellinus ; — but which De Rossi 
identifies with the cella mejiiorice, sometimes called of St. 
Sistus, sometimes of St. Cecilia (because built immediately 
over the graves of those martyrs), by St. Fabian in the third 
century. * 

Descending into the Catacomb by an ancient staircase 
restored, we reach (passing a sepulchral cubiculum on the 
right) the Chapel of the Popes ^ a place of burial and of 
worship of the third or fourth century, (as it was restored 
after its discovery in 1854, but) still retaining remains of the 
marble slabs with which it was faced by Sixtus III. in the 
fifth century, and of marble columns, &c. with which it was 
adorned by St. Leo III. (795 — 816). The walls are lined 
with graves of the earliest popes, many of them martyrs — 
viz. St. Zephyrinus, (202 — 211); St. Pontianus, who died in 
banishment in Sardinia, (231—236); St. Anteros, martyred 
under Maximian in the second month of his pontificate, 
(236); St. Fabian, martyred under Decius, (236 — 250); 
St. Lucius, martyred under Valerian, (253 — 255); St. 
Stephen I., martyred in his episcopal chair under Va- 
lerian, (255—257); St. Sixtus II., martyred in the catacombs 
of St. Pretextatus, (257 — 260); St. Dionysius, (260 — 271); 
St. Eutychianus, martyr, (275 — 283); and St. Caius, (284 
— 296). Of these, the gravestones of Anteros, Fabian, 
Lucius, and Eutychianus, have been discovered, with in- 

* Roma Sotterranea, p. 130. 



2^2 WALKS IN ROME. 

scriptlons in Greek, which is acknowledged to have been 
the earhest language of the Church, — in which St. Paul and 
St. James wrote, and in which the proceedings of the first 
twelve Councils were carried on.* Though no inscriptions 
have been found relating to the other popes mentioned, 
they are known to have been buried here from the earliest 
authorities. 

Over the site of the altar is one of the beautifully-cut 
inscriptions of Pope St. Damasus (366 — 384), " whose labour 
of love it was to rediscover the tombs which had been 
blocked up for concealment under Diocletian, to remove the 
earth, widen the passages, adorn the sepulchral chambers 
with m.arble, and support the friable tufa walls with arches 
of brick and stone." t 

•' Hie congesta jacet quoeiis si turba Piorum 
Corpora Sanctorum retinent veneranda sepulchra. 
Sublimes animas rapuit sibi Regia Coeli : 
Hie comites Xysti portant qui ex hoste tropaea ; 
Hie numerus procerum servat qui altaria Christi ; 
Hie positus longa vixit qui in paee Sacerdos ; 
Hie Confessores saneti quos Grascia misit ; 
Hie juvenes, puerique, senes, castique nepotes, 
Quis mage virgineum placuil retinere pudorem. 
Hie fateor Damasus volui mea eondere membra, 
Sed eineres timui sanetos vexare Piorum. 

** Here, if you would know, lie heaped together a number of the holy, 
These honoured sepulehres inclose the bodies of the saints, 
Their lofty souls the palace of heaven has received. 
Here lie the companions of Xystus, who bear away the trophies 

from the enemy ; 
Here a tribe of the eldei-s which guards the altars of Christ ; 
Here is buried the priest who lived long in peace ; % 
Here the holy confessors who came from Greece ; § 
Here lie youths and boys, old men and their chaste descendants. 
Who kept their virginity undefiled. 
Here I Damasus wished to have laid my limbs, 
But feared to disturb the holy ashes of the saints." |l 

From this chapel we enter the C7thia/him of Sfa Cecilia, 
where the body of the saint Avas buried by her friend Urban 
after her martyrdom in her own house in the Trastevere (see 
Chap. XVII.) A.D. 224, and where it was discovered in 820 by 

♦ Roma Sotterranea, p. 177. t Roma Sotteranea, p. r>7. 

X St. Melchiades, buried in another part of the catacomb, who hved long m peaca 
after the persecution had ceased. 

§ Hippolytus, Adrias, Marca, Neo, Paulina, and others. 
11 St. Damasus was buried in the chapel above the entrance. 



CATACOMB OF ST. CALIXTUS. 273 

Pope Paschal I. (to whom its resting-place had been revealed 
in a dream), " fresh and perfect as when it was first laid in 
the tomb, and clad in rich garments mixed with gold, with 
linen cloths stained with blood rolled up at her feet, lying in 
a cypress coffin."'*" 

Close to the entrance of the cubiculum, upon the wall, is 
a painting of Cecilia, " a woman richly attired, and adorned 
with bracelets and necklaces." Near it is a niche for the 
lamp which burnt before the shrine, at the back of which is 
a large head of Our Saviour, " of the Byzantine type, and 
with rays of glory behind it in the form of a Greek cross. 
Side by side with this, but on the flat surface of the wall, is 
a figure of St. Urban (the friend of Cecilia, who laid her 
body here) in full pontifical robes, with his name inscribed." 
Higher on the wall are figures of three saints, " executed 
apparently in the fourth, or perhaps even the fifth century " — 
Polycamus, an unknown martyr, with a palm branch ; Sebas- 
tianus ; and Curinus, a bishop (Quirinus bishop of Siscia — 
buried at St. Sebastian). In the pavement is a gravestone 
of Septimus Pretextatus Csecilianus, "a servant of God, 
who lived worthy for three-and-thirty years ; " — con- 
sidered important as suggesting a connection between the 
family of Cecilia and that of St Praetextatus, in whose 
catacomb on the other side of the Appian Way her husband 
and brother-in-law were buried, and where her friend St. 
Urban was concealed. 

These two chapels are the only ones which it is necessary 
to dwell upon here in detail. The rest of the catacomb is 
shown in varying order, and explained in different ways. 
Three points are of historic interest, i. The roof-shaped 
tomb of Pope St. Melchiades, who lived long in peace and 
died A.D. 313. 2. The Cubiculum of Pope St. Eusebius, in 
the middle of which is placed an inscription, pagan on one 
side, on the other a restoration of the fifth century of one 
of the beautiful inscriptions of Pope Damasus, which is thus 
translated : — 

"Heraclins forbade the lapsed to grieve for their sins. Eusebius 
taught those unhappy ones to weep for their crimes. The people were 
rent into parties, and with increasing fury began sedition, slaughter, 

* "A more striking commentary on the divine promise, 'The Lordkeepeth all the 
bones of his servants ; He will not lose one of them ' (Ps. xxxiii. 24), it would be 
diflfictilt to conceive." — Roma Sotterranea. 



274 WALKS IiV ROME. 

fighting, discord, and strife. Straightway both (the pope and the 
heretic) Avere banished by the cnielty of the tyrant, although the pope 
was preserving the bonds of peace inviolate. He bore his exile with joy, 
lookin^j to the Lord as his judge, and on the shore of Sicily gave up the 
world and his life." 

At the top and bottom of the tablet is the following 
title :— 

" Damasus Episcopus fecit Eusebio episcopo et martyri," 
and on either side a single file of letters which hands down 
to us the name of the sculptor who executed the Damasine 
inscriptions. 

"Furius Dionysius Filocalus scripsit Damasis pappse cultor atque 
aniatot." 

3. Near the exit, properly in the catacomb of Sta. Lucina, 
connected with that of Calixtus by a labyrinth of galleries, 
is the tomb of Pope St. Cornelius (251, 252) the only 
Roman bishop down to the time of St. Sylvester (314) who 
bore the name of any noble Roman family, and whose 
epitaph (perhaps in consequence) is in Latin, while those of 
the other popes are in Greek. The tomb has no chapel of 
its own, but is a mere grave in a gallery, with a rectangular 
instead of a circular space above, as in the cubicula. Near 
the tomb are fragments of one of the commemorative inscrip- 
tions of St. Damasus, which has been ingeniously restored 
by De Rossi thus : — 

" Aspice, descensu extructo tenebrisque fugatis 
Corneli monumenta vides tumulumque sacratum 
Hoc opus £egroti Damasi praestantia fecit, 
Esset ut accessus nielior, populisque paratum 
Auxilium sancti, et valeas si fundere puro 
Corde preces, Damasus melior consurgere posset. 
Quern non lucis amor, tenuit mage cura laboris." 
** Behold ! a way down has been constructed, and the darkness dis- 
pelled ; you see the monuments of Cornelius, and his sacred tomb. 
This work the zeal of Damasus has accomplished, sick as he is, in 
order that the approach might be better, and the aid of the saint might 
be made convenient for the people ; and that, if you will pour forth 
your prayers from a pure heart, Damasus may rise up better in health, 
though it has not been love of life, but care for work, that has kept him 
(here below)." * 

St. Cornelius was banished under Callus to Centumcell^e 
■ — now Civita Vecchia, and was brought back thence to 
Rome fjr martyrdom Sept. 14, a.d. 252. On the same day 

♦ Roma Sottdrranea, p. i8o. 



PAINTINGS IN THE CATACOMBS. 275 

of the month, in 258, died his friend and correspondent 
St. Cyprian, archbishop of Carthage,'^' who is consequently 
commemorated by the Church on the same day with St. 
CorneUus. Therefore also, on the right of the grave, are 
two figures of bishops with inscriptions declaring them to be 
St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian. Each holds the book of the 
Gospels in his hands and is clothed in pontifical robes, 
" including the pallium, which had not yet been confined 
as a mark of distinction to metropolitans.t Beneath the 
picture stands a pillar which held one of the vases of oil 
which were always kept burning before the shrines of the 
martyr. Beyond the tomb, at the end of the gallery, is 
another painting of two bishops, St. Sistus II., martyred in 
the catacomb of Praetextatus, and St. Optatus who was buried 
near him. 

In going round this catacomb, and in most of the others, 
the visitor will be shown a number of rude paintings, which 
will be explained to him in various ways, according to the 
tendencies of his guide. The paintings may be considered 
to consist of three classes, symbolical ; allegorical and 
biblical ; and liturgical. There is little variety of subject, — • 
the same are introduced over and over again. 

The symbols most frequently introduced on and over 
the graves are : — 

The Anchor, expressive of hope. Heb. vi. 19. 

The Dove, symbolical of the Christian soul released from its earthly 
tabernacle. Ps. Iv. 6. 

The Sheep, symbolical of the soul still wandering amid the pastures 
and deserts of earthly life. Fs. cxix. 1 76. Isaiah liii. 6. John 
X. 14 ; xxi. 15, 16, 17. 

The Phcenix, " the palm bird," emblematical of eternity and the 
resurrection. 

The Fish — typical of Our Saviour— from the word ix^vq, formed by 
the initial letters of the titles of Our Lord — \r]nov(; Xpiffrbg Oiov 
fioQ ^koTrjp- — "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour." 

The Ship- -representing the Church militant, sometimes seen carried 
on the back of the fish. 

Bread, represented with fish, sometimes carried in a basket on its 
back, sometimes with it on a table — in allusion to the multipli- 
cation of the loaves and fishes. 

A Feynale Figure Praying, an *' Orante "—in allusion to the Church. 

A Vi7ie — also in allusion to the Church, Ps, Ixxx, 8. Isaiah v. i. 

An Olive branch, as a sign of peace. 

A Palm branch, -as a sign of victory and martyrdom. Rev. vii. 9. 

* Alh.-in I'.utler, viii. 204. t Roma Sottetranea, p. 182. 



276 WALKS IN ROME. 



Allegorical a7id Biblical Representations. 

Of these The Good Shepherd requires an especial notice 
from the importance which is given to it and its frequent 
introduction in catacomb art, both in sculpture and 
painting. 

" By far the most interesting of the early Christian paintings is that 
of Our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, which is almost invariably 
painted on the central space of the dome or cupola, subjects of minor 
interest being disposed around it in compartments, precisely in the 
style, as regards both the arrangement and execution, of the heathen 
catacombs. 

" He is represented as a youth in a shepherd's frock and sandals, 
carrying the 'lost sheep ' on his shoulders, or leaning on his staff (the 
symbol, according to St. Augustine, of the Christian hierarchy), while 
the sheep feed around, or look up at him. Sometimes he is represented 
seated in the midst of the flock, playing on a shepherd's pipe, — in a few 
instances, in the oldest catacombs, he is introduced in the character of 
Orpheus, surrounded by wild beasts enrapt by the melody of his lyre, — 
Orpheus being then supposed to have been a prophet or precursor of 
the Messiah. The background usually exhibits a landscape or meadow, 
sometimes planted with olive-trees, doves resting on their branches, 
symbolical of the peace of the faithful ; in others, as in a fresco pre- 
served in the Museum Christianum, the palm of victory is introduced, 
— but such combinations are endless. In one or two instances the 
surrounding compartments are filled with personifications of the Seasons, 
apt emblems of human life, whether natural or spiritual. 

"The subject of the Good Shepherd, I am soiry to add, is not of 
Roman but Greek origin, and was adapted from a statue of Mercury 
carrying a goat, at Tanagra, mentioned by Pausanias. The Christian 
composition approximates to its original more nearly in the few instances 
where Our Saviour is represented carrying a goat, emblematical of 
the scapegoat of the wilderness. Singularly enough, though of Greek 
parentage, and recommendeti to the By/antines by Constanline, who 
erected a statue of the Good Shepherd in the forum of Constantinople, 
the subject did not become popular among them ; they seem, at least, 
to have tacitly abandoned it to Rome" — Lord Lindsays Chris/tan Art. 

" The Good Shepherd seems to have been quite the favourite subject. 
We cannot go through any part of the Catacombs, or turn over any 
collection of ancient Christian monuments, without coming across it 
again and again. We know from TcrLullian that it was ofte3i designed 
upon chalices. We find it ourselves painted in fresco upon the roofs 
and walls of the sepulchral chambers ; rudely scratched upon grave- 
stones, or more carefully sculptured on sarcophagi ; traced in gold 
upon glass, moulded on lamps, engraved on rings ; and, in a word, 
represented on every species of Christian monument that has come 
down to us. Of course, amid such a multitude of examples, there is 
considerable variety of treatment. We cannot, however, apj-rcM i;\te tlie 
suggestion of Kiigler, that this frequent repetition of the subject is 
probably to be attributed to the capabilities which it possessed ia an 



J 



PAINTINGS IN THE CATACOMBS. 277 

artistic point of view. Rather, it was selected because it expressed the 
whole sum and substance of the Christian dispensation. In the language 
even of the Old Testament, the action of Divine Providence upon the 
world is frequently expressed by images and allegories borrowed from 
pastoral life ; God is the Shepherd, and men are His sheep. But in a 
still more special way our Divine Redeemer offers Himself to our 
regards as the Good Shepherd, He came down from His eternal 
throne into this wilderness of the world to seek the lost sheep of the 
whole human race, and having brought them together into one fold 
on earth, thence to transport them into the ever-verdant pastures of 
Paradise." — Roma Sotterranea. 

Other biblical subjects are : — from the Old Testa?nent 
(those of Noah, Moses, Daniel, and Jonah being the only 
ones at all common) — 

1. The Fall. Adam and Eve on either side of the Tree of Know- 

ledge, round which the serpent is coiled. Sometimes, instead of 
this, "Our Saviour (as the representative of the Deity) stands 
between them, condemning them, and offering a lamb to Eve 
and a sheaf of corn to Adam, to signify the doom of themselves 
and their posterity to delve and to spin through all future ages." 

2. The Offering of Cain and Abel. They present a lamb and sheaf 

of corn to a seated figure of the Almighty. 

3 . Noah in the Ark, represented as a box — a dove, bearing an olive- 

branch, flies towards him. Interpreted to express the doctrine 
that "the faithful having obtained remission of their sins through 
baptism, have received from the Holy Spirit the gift of divine 
peace, and are saved in the mystical ark of the church from the 
destruction which awaits the world."* (Acts ii. 47.) 

4. Sacrifice of Isaac. 

5. Passage of the Red Sea. 

6. Moses receiving the LaAv. 

7. Moses striking water from the rock — (very common). 

8. Moses pointing to the pots of manna. 

9. Elijah going up to heaven in the chariot of fire. 

10. The Three Children in the fiery furnace ; — very common as sym- 

bolical of martyrdom. 

11. Daniel in the lions' den ; — generally a naked figure with hands 

extended, and a lion on either side ; most common — as an 
encouragement to Christian sufferers. 

12. Jonah swallowed up by the whale, represented as a strange kind 

of sea-horse. 

13. Jonah disgorged by the whale. 

14. Jonah under the gourd ; or, according to the Vulgate, under 

the ivy. 

15. Jonah lamenting for the death of the gourd. 

These four subjects from the story of Jonah are constantly re- 
peated, perhaps as encouragement to the Christians suffering 
from the wickedness of Rome — the modem Nineveh, which 
they were to warn and pray for. 

* Roma Sotterranea, p. 24*. 



278 WALKS IN HOME. 

Subjects from the New Testament are : 

1. The Nativity — the ox and the ass kneeling. 

2. The Adoration of the Magi— repeatedly placed in juxtaposition 

with the story of the Three Children. 

3. Our Saviour turning water into wine. 

4. Our Saviour conversing with the woman of Samaria. 

5. Our Saviour healing the paralytic man — who takes up his bed. 

This is very common. 

6. Our Saviour healing the woman with the issue of blood. 

7. Our Saviour multiplying the loaves and fishes. 

8. Our Saviour healing the daughter of the woman of Canaan. 

9. Our Saviour healing the blind man. 

10. The raising of Lazarus, who appears at a door in his grave- 

clothes, while Christ with a wand stands before it. This is the 
New Testament subject oftenest introduced. Ijt is constantly 
placed in juxtaposition with a picture of Moses striking the 
rock. "These two subjects may be intended to represent the 
beginning and end of the Christian course, * the fountain of 
water springing up to life everlasting.' God's grace and the gift 
of faith being typified by the water flowing from the rock, 
' which was Clirist,' and life everlasting by the victory over death 
and the second life vouchsafed to Lazaiiis." * 

11. Our Saviour's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 

12. Our Saviour giving the keys to Peter — very rare. 

13. Our Saviour predicting the denial of Peter. 

14. The denial of Peter. 

15. Our Saviour before Pilate. 

16. St. Peter taken to prison. 

These last six subjects are only represented on tombs. + 

The class of paintings shown as Liturgical are less de- 
finite than these. In the Catacombs of CaHxtus several 
obscure paintings are shown (in cubicula anterior to the 
middle of the third century), which are said to have re- 
ference to the sacrament of baptism. Pictures of the 
paralytic carrying his bed are identified by some Roman 
Catholic authorities with the sacrament of penance. (!) 
Bosio believed that in the Catacomb of Sta. Priscilla he 
had found paintings which illustrated the sacrament of or- 
dination. Representations undoubtedly exist which illus- 
trate the agape or love-feast of the primitive Church. 

On the opposite side of the Via Appia from St. Calixtus 
(generally entered from the road leading to S. Urbano) is 
the Catacomb of St. Pretextatus ., interesting as being the 
known burial-place of several martyrs. A large crypt was 
discovered here in 1857, built with solid masonry and 
lined with Greek marble. 

* Roma Sotterranea, p. 247. t Lord Liiidsaj's Christian Art, i. 46. 



CA TA COMB OF ST. PRE TEXTA TUS. 279 

**The workmanship points to early date, and specimens of pagan 
architecture in the same neighbourhood enable us to fix the middle of 
the latter half of the second century (a.d. 175) as a very probable date 
for its erection. The Acts of the Saints explain to us why it was built 
with bricks, and not hewn out of the rock — viz. because the Christian 
who made it (Sta. Marmenia) had caused it to be excavated immediately 
below her own house; and now that we see it, we understand the precise 
meaning of the words used by the itineraries describing it— viz. ' a large 
cavern, most firmly built.' The vault of the chapel is most elaborately 
painted, in a style by no means inferior to the best classical productions 
of the age. It is divided into four bands of wreaths, one of roses, 
another of corn-sheaves, a third of vine-leaves and grapes (and in all 
these, birds are introduced visiting their young in nests), and the last or 
highest, of leaves of laurel or the bay-tree. Of course these severally 
represent the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The last 
is a well-known figure or symbol of death ; and probably the laurel, as 
the token of victory, was intended to represent the new and Christian 
idea of the everlasting reward of a blessed immortality. Below these 
bands is another border, more indistinct, in which reapers are gathering 
in the corn ; and at the back of the arch is a rural scene, of which the 
central figure is the Good Shepherd carrying a sheep upon his shoulders. 
This, however, has been destroyed by graves pierced through the wall 
and the rock behind it, from the eager desire to bury the dead of a later 
generation as near as possible to the tombs of the martyrs. As De 
Rossi proceeded to examine these graves in detail, he could hardly 
believe his eyes when he read around the edge of one of them these 
woids and fragments of words : — Mi Refrigeri Januarius Agatopos 
Felicissiin Marty res — 'Januarius, Agapetus, Felicissimus, martyrs, refresh 
the soul of . . . . ' The words had been scratched upon the 
mortar while it was yet fresh, fifteen centuries ago, as the prayer of some 
bereaved relative for the soul of him whom they were burying here, and 
now they revealed to the antiquarian of the nineteenth century the 
secret he was in quest of — viz. the place of burial of the saints whose 
aid is here invoked ; for the numerous examples to be seen in other 
cemeteries warraiit us in concluding that the bodies of the saints, to 
whose intercession the soul of the deceased is here recommended, were 
at the time of his burial lying at no great distance." — Roma Sotterranea. 

The St. Januarius buried here was the eldest of the 
seven sons of St. FeHcitas, martyred July 10, a.d. 162. St. 
Agapitus and St. Felicissimus were deacons of Pope Sixtus 
II., who were martyred together with him and St. Pretex- 
tatus * in this very catacomb, because Sixtus II. " had set 
at nought the commands of the Emperor Valerian." t 

A mutilated inscription of St. Damasus, in the Catacomb 
of Calixtus, near the tomb of Cornelius, thus records the 
death of this pope : 

" Tempore quo gladius secuit pia visura Matris 
Hie positus rector coelestia jussa docebam ; 

* Alban Butler, viil. 148. t Lib. Pont. 



28o WALKS IX ROME. 

Adveniunt subito, rapiunt qui forte sedentem ; 
Militibus missis, populi tunc colla dedere, 
Mox sibi cognovit senior quis toUere vellet 
Pahnam seque suumque caput prior obtulit ipse, 
Impatiens feritas posset ne Isedere quemquam. 
Ostendit Christus reddit qui pr<emia vit?e 
Pastoris meritum, numerum gregis ipse tuetur," 

** At the time when the sword pierced the heart of our Mother 
(Church), I, its ruler, buried here, was teaching the things of heaven. 
Suddenly they came, they seized me seated as I was ;— the soldiers being 
sent in, the people gave their necks (to the slaughter). Soon the old 
man saw who was willing to bear away the palm from himself, and was 
the first to offer himself and his own head, fearing lest the blow should 
fall on any one else. Christ who awards the rewards of life recognises 
the merit of the pastor, he himself is preserving the number of his 
flock." 

An adjoining crypt, considered to date from a.d. 130, is 
believed to be the burial-place of St. Quirinus. 

Above this catacomb are ruins of two basilicas, erected 
in honour of St. Zeno ; and of Tiburtius, Valerian, and 
Maximus, companions of Sta. Cecilia in martyrdom. 

In the road leading to S. Urbano is the entrance to the 
Jewish Catacomb. It is entered by a chamber open to the 
sky, floored with black and white mosaic, which is sup- 
posed to have formed part of a pagan dwelling. The 
following chamber has remains of a well. Hence a low 
door forms the entrance of a gallery out of which open six 
cubicula, one of them containing a fine white marble sar- 
cophagus, and decorated with a painting of the seven- 
branched candlestick. A side passage leads to other cubi- 
cula, and to an open space which seems to have been an 
actual arenarium. A winding passage at the end of the 
larger gallery leads to the graves in the floor divided into 
different cells for corpses, and called Cocim by Rabbinical 
■writers. A cubiculum at the end of the catacomb has 
paintings of figures — Plenty, with a cornucopia ; Victory, 
with a palm leaf, &c. The inscriptions found show that 
this cemetery was exclusively Jewish. They refer to officers 
of the synagogue, rulers {n^yovrtq), and scribes (ypa^ji/.i-ar^, 
&c. The inscriptions are in great part in Greek letters, 
expressing Latin words. 

Another small Jewish catacomb has been discovered 
behind the basilica of St. Sebastian. Behind the Catacomb 
of St. Calixtus, on the right of the Via Ardeatina, is the 



CATACOMB OF SS. NEREO ED ACHILLEO. 281 

Cata€07iib of SS. Nei'eo ed Achilleo. Close to its entrance is 
the farm of Tor Maraficia, where are some ruins, beHeved 
to be remains of the villa of Flavia Domitilla. This cele- 
brated member of the early Christian Church was daughter 
of the Flavia Domitilla who was sister of the Emperor 
Domitian, — and wife of Titus Flavius Clemens, son of the 
Titus Flavius Sabinus who was brother of tlie Emperor 
Vespasian. Her two sons were, Vespasian Junior and 
Domitian Junior, who were intended to succeed to the 
throne, and to whom Quinctilian was appointed as tutor by 
the emperor. Dion Cassius narrates that *' Domitian put to 
death several persons, and amongst them Flavius Clemens 
the consul, although he was his nephew, and although he 
had Flavia Domitilla for his wife, who was also related to 
the emperor. They were both accused of atheism, on 
which charge many others also had been condemned, 
going after the manners and customs of the Jews ; and 
some of them were put to death, and others had their goods 
confiscated ; but Domitilla was only banished to Pandata- 
ria."* This Flavia Domitilla is frequently confused with her 
niece of the same name,t whose banishment is mentioned 
by Eusebius, when he says : — " The teaching of our faith 
had by this time shone so far and wide, that even pagan 
historians did not refuse to insert in their narratives some 
account of the persecution and the martyrdoms that were 
suffered in it. Some, too, have marked the time accur- 
ately, mentioning, amongst many others, in the fifteenth 
year of Domitian (a.d, 97), Flavia Domitilla, the daughter 
of a sister of Flavius Clemens, one of the Roman consuls 
of those days, who, for her testimony for Christ, was 
punished by exile to the island of Pontia." It was this 
younger Domitilla who was accompanied in her exile by 
her two Chrisdan servants, Nereus and Achilles ; whose 
banishment is spoken of by St. Jerome as " a life -long 
martyrdom," — whose cell was afterwards visited by Sta. 
Paula, X and who, according to the Acts of SS. Nereus and 
Achilles, was brought back to the mainland to be burnt 
alive at Terracina, because she refused to sacrifice to idols. 
The relics of Domitilla, with those of her servants, were 

* Now Santa Maria, an island near Gaieta. t Alban Butler, v. 205* 

X Alban Butler, v. 205. 



282 WALKS IN ROME. 

preserved in the catacomb under the villa which had 
belonged to her Christian aunt. 

Receiving as evidence the story of Sta. Domitilla, this 
catacomb must be looked upon as the oldest Christian 
cemetery in existence. Its galleries were widened and 
strengthened by John I. (523 — 526). A chamber near the 
entrance is pointed out as the burial-place of Sta. Pe- 
tronilla. 

" The sepulchre of SS. Nereus and Achilles was in all probability 
in that chapel to which we descend by so magnificent a staircase, and 
which is illuminated by so fine a Imninare ; for that this is the central 
point of attraction in the cemetery is clear, both from the staircase and 
the luminare just mentioned, as also from the greater width of the ad- 
jacent galleries and other similar tokens." Here then St. Gregory the 
Great delivered his twenty-eighth homily (which Baronius erroneously 
supposes to have been delivered in the Church of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo, 
to which the bodies of the saints were not yet removed), in which he 
says — " These saints, before whose tomb we are assembled, despised 
the world and trampled it under their feet, when peace, plenty, riches, 
and health gave it charms." 

" . . . . There is a higher and more ancient //^z;?^, in which coins 
and medals of the first two centuries, and inscriptions of great value, have 
been recently discovered. Some of these inscriptions may still be seen 
in one of the chambers near the bottom of the staircase ; they are both 
Latin and Greek ; sometimes both languages are mixed ; and in one or 
two instances Latin words are written in Greek characters. Many of 
these monuments are of the deepest importance both in an antiquarian 
and religious point of view ; in archceology, as showing the practice of 
private Christians in the first ages to make the subterranean chambers at 
their own expense and for their own use, e. g. — ' M. Aurelius Restutus 
made this subterranean for himself, and those of his family who believed 
in the Lord,' — where, both the triple names and the limitation intro- 
duced at the end (which shows that many of his family were still 
pagan), are unquestionably proofs of very high antiquity." — NoHhcote s 
Roman Catacombs, p. 103, &c. 

Among the most remarkable paintings in this catacomb 
are, Orpheus with his lyre, surrounded by birds and beasts 
who are charmed with his music ; Elijah ascending to 
heaven in a chariot drawn by four horses ; and the portrait 
of Our Lord. 

"The head and bust of our Lord form a medallion, occupying the 
centre of the roof in the same ciibiculum where Orpheus is represented. 
This painting, in consequence of the description given of it l)y Kiigler 
(who misnamed the catacomb St. Calixtus), is often eagerly sought after 
by strangers visiting the catacombs. It is only just, however, to adfl, 
that they are generally disappointed. Kiigler supposed it to be the 
oldest portrait of Our Blessed Saviour in existence, but we doubt if 
there is sufficient authority for such a statement. He describes it in 



BURIAL-PLACE OF STA. DOMITILLA. 283 

these words : — ' The face is oval, with a straight nose, arched eyebrows, 
a smooth and rather high forehead, the expression serious and mild ; 
the hair, parted on the forehead, flows in long curls down the shoulders ; 
the beard is not thick, but short and divided ; the age between thirty 
and forty. ' But this description is too minute and precise, too artistic, 
for the original, as it is now to be seen. A lively imagination may, 
perhaps, supply the details described by our author, but the eye certainly 
fails to distinguish them." — Roma Sotterranea, p. 253. 

Approached by a separate entrance on the slope of the 
hill-side is a sepulchral chamber, which De Rossi considers 
to have been the Burial-place of Sta. Domitilla. 

" It is certainly one of the most ancient and remarkable Christian 
monuments yet discovered. Its position, close to the highway ; its 
front of fine brickwork, with a cornice of terra -cotta, with the usual space 
for an inscription (which has now, alas, perished) ; the spaciousness of 
its gallery, with its four or five separate niches prepared for as many 
sarcophagi ; the fine stucco on the wall ; the eminently classical cha- 
racter of its decorations ; all these things make it perfectly clear that it 
was the monument of a Christian family of distinction, excavated at 
great cost, and without the slightest attempt at concealment. In pass- 
ing from the vestibule into the catacomb, we recognise the transition 
from the use of the sarcophagus to that of the common loculus ; for the 
first two or three graves on either side, though really mere shelves in the 
wall, are so disguised by painting on the outside as to present to passers- 
by the complete outward appearance of a sarcophagus. Some few of 
these graves are marked with the names of the dead, written in black on 
the largest tiles, and the inscriptions on the other graves are all of the 
simplest and oldest form. Lastly, the whole of the vaulted roof is 
covered with the most exquisitely graceful designs, of branches of the 
vine (with birds and winged genii among them) trailing with all the 
freedom of nature over the whole walls, not fearing any interruption by 
graves, nor confined by any of those lines of geometrical symmetry 
which characterise similar productions in the next century. Traces also 
of landscapes may be seen here and there, wdiich are of rare occurrence 
in the catacombs, though they may be seen in the chambers assigned by 
De Rossi to SS. Nereus and Achilles. The Good Shepherd, an agape, 
or the heavenly feast, a man fishing, and Daniel in the lions' den, 
are the chief historical or allegorical representations of Christian 
mysteries which are painted here. Unfortunately they have been almost 
destroyed by persons attempting to detach them from the wall," — 
Roma Sotterranea, p. 70. 



A road to the left now leads to the Via Appia Nuova, 
passing about a quarter of a mile hence, a turn on the left 
to the ruin generally known as the Tejiiple of Bacchus^ from 
an altar dedicated to Bacchus which was found there, but 
considered by modern antiquaries as a temple of Ceres and 
Proserpine. This building has been comparatively saved 



284 IVALA'S IX ROME. 

from the destruction which has befallen its neighbours by- 
having been consecrated as a church in a.d. 820 by Pope 
Pascal I., in honour of his sainted predecessor Urban I., 
A.D. 226 — whose pontificate was chiefly passed in refuge in 
the neighbouring Catacomb of St. CaHxtus — because of a 
belief that he was wont to resort hither. 

A chapel at a great depth below the church, is shown as 
that in which St. Urban baptized and celebrated mass. A 
curious fresco here represents the Virgin between St. 
Urban and St. John. 

Around the upper part of the interior are a much injured 
series of frescoes, comprising — the life of Christ from the 
Annunciation to the descent into Hades, — and the life 
of St. Cecilia and her husband Valerian, ending in the 
burial of Cecilia by Pope Urban in the Catacombs of 
Calixtus, and the story of the martyred Urban I. In the 
picture of the Crucifixion, the thieves have their names, 
'Xalpurnius and Longinus." The frescoes were altered in 
the seventeenth century to suit the views of the Roman 
Church, keys being placed in the hand of Peter, &c. Sets 
of drawings taken before and after the alterations, are pre- 
served in the Barberini Library, and curiously show the 
difterence. 

A winding path leads from S. Urbano into the val- 
ley. Here, beside the Almo rivulet, is a ruined Nym- 
phaeum containing a mutilated statue of a river-god, which 
was called " the Grotto of Egeria," till a few years ago, 
when the discovery of the true site of the Porta Capena fixed 
that of the grotto within the walls. The fine grove of old 
ilex-trees on the hillside, was at the same time pointed out as 
the sacred grove of Egeria. 

" Egeria ! sweet creation of some heart 

Which found no mortal resting-place so fair 

As thine ideal breast ; whate'er thou art 

Or wert, — a young Aurora of the air, 

The nympholepsy of some fond despair ; 

Or, it' might be, a beauty of the earth, 

Who found a more than common votary there 

Too much adoring ; whatsoe'er thy birth, 

Thou wert a beautiful thought, and softly bodied forth. 
'* The mosses of thy fountain still are sprinkled 

With thine Elysian water-drops ; the face 

Of thy cave-guarded spring, with years unwrinkled, 

Reflects the meek-eyed genius of the place. 



STOR V OF HEROD ES A TTICUS. 285 

Whose green, wild margin now no more erase 

Art's works ; nor must the delicate waters sleep, 

Prisoned in marble, bubbling from the base 

Of the cleft statue, with a gentle leap 

The rill runs o'er, and round, fern, flowers, and ivy, creep, 

** Fantastically tangled ; the green hills 
Are clothed with early blossoms, through the grass 
The quick-eyed lizard rustles, and the bills 
Of summer-birds sing welcome as ye pass ; 
Flowers fresh in hue, and many in their class, 
Implore the pausing step, and with their dyes 
Dance in the soft breeze in a fairy mass ; 
The sweetness of the violet's deep blue eyes, 
Kiss'd by the breath of heaven, seems coloured by its skies." 

Byroit, Childe Harold. 

It is now known that this nymphaeum and the valley in 
which it stands belonged to the suburban villa called Triopio, 
of Herodes Atticus, whose romantic story is handed down 
to us through two Greek inscriptions in the possession of the 
Borghese family, and is further illustrated by the writings of 
Filostratus and Pausanias. 

A wealthy Greek named Ipparchus offended his government and 
lost all his wealth by confiscation, but the family fortunes were re- 
deemed, through the discovery by his son Atticus of a vast treasure, 
concealed in a small piece of ground which remained to them, close to 
the rock of the Acropolis. Dreading the avarice of his fellow-citizens, 
Atticus sent at once to Nerva, the then emperor, telling him of the disco- 
very, and requesting his orders as to what he was to do with the trea- 
sure. Nerva replied, that he was welcome to keep it, and use it as he 
pleased. Not yet satisfied or feeling sufficiently sure of the protection of 
the emperor, Atticus again applied to him, saying that the treasure was 
far too vast for the use of a person in a private station of life, and 
asking how he was to use it. The emperor again replied that the 
treasure was his own and due to his own good fortune, and that "what 
he could not use he might abuse." Atticus then entered securely into 
possession of his wealth, which he bequeathed to his son Herodes, who 
used his fortune magnificently in his bountiful charities, in the encour- 
agement of literature and art throughout both Greece and Italy, and 
(best appreciated of all by the Greeks) in the splendour of the public 
games which he gave. 

Early in the reign of Antoninus Pius, Herodes Atticus removed to 
Rome, where he was appointed professor of rhetoric to Marcus Aurelius 
and Lucius Verus, the two adopted sons of the emperor, and where he 
attained the consulship in A.D. 143. Soon after his arrival he fell in 
love with Annia Regilla, a beautiful and wealthy heiress, and in spite 
of the violent opposition of her brother, Annius Attilius Braduas, who, 
belonging to the Julian family, and claiming an imaginary descent from 
Venus and Anchises, looked upon the marriage as a mesalliance, he 
succeeded in obtaining her hand. Part of the wealth which Annia 



286 PVAL/rS IN ROME. 

Regilla brought to her husband was the Valle CaffarelK and its 
nymphaeum. 

For some years Herodes Atticus and Annia Regilla enjoyed the per- 
fection of married happiness in this beautiful valley ; but shortly before 
the expected birth of her fifth child, she died very suddenly, leaving her 
husband almost frantic \\Ax\\ grief and refusing every consolation. He 
was roused, however, from his first anguish by his brother-in-law Annius 
Braduas, who had never laid aside his resentment at the marriage, and 
who now accused him of having poisoned his wife. Herodes demanded 
a public trial, and was acquitted. Filostratus records that the intense 
grief he showed and the depth of the mourning he wore, were taken as 
signs of his innocence. Further to clear himself from imputation, 
Herodes offered all the jewels of Annia Regilla upon the altar of the 
Eleusinian deities, Ceres and Proserpine, at the same time calling down 
the vengeance of the outraged gods if he were guilty of sacrilege. 

The beloved Regilla was buried in a tomb surrounded by "a sepul- 
chral field " within the precincts of the villa, dedicated to Minerva and 
Nemesis, and (as recorded in one of the Greek inscriptions) it was made 
an act of the highest sacrilege, for any but her own descendants to be 
laid within those sacred limits. A statue Avas also erected to Regilla 
in the Triopian temple of Ceres and Prosei-pine, which is now supposed 
to be the same with that usually called the temple of Bacchus. Not 
only did Herodes hang his house with black in his affliction, but 
all gaily coloured marbles were stripped from the walls, and replaced 
with the dark grey marble known as "bardiglio," — and his depth 
of woe made him so conspicuous, that a satirical person seeing his 
cook prepare white beans for dinner, wondered that he could dare to do 
so in a house so entirely black. 

The inscriptions in which this story is related (one of 
them containing thirty-nine Greek verses) are engraved on 
slabs of Pentelic marble — and Philostratus and Pausanias 
narrate that the quarries of this marble were the property of 
Herodes, and that in his magnificent buildings he almost 
exhausted them.''' 

The field path from hence leads back to the Church of 
Domine Quo Vadis, passing on the right a beautifully- 
finished tomb (of the time of Septimius Severus) known as 
the Temple of Divus Rediculus^ and formerly described as 
having been built to commemorate the retreat of Hannibal, 
who came thus far in his intended attack upon Rome. The 
temple erected in memory of this event was really on the 
right of the Via Appia. It was dedicated to Rediculus, 
the god of Return. The folly of ciceroni often cites this 
name as " Ridiculous." 

* For these and many other particulars, see .in interesting lecture by Mr. Shake- 
spere Wood, on "The FouiUain of Fgeria," given before the Roman Archasol gical 
Society. 



BASILICA OF S. SEBASTIANO. 287 

The neighbourhood of the Divus Rediculus (which he however places 
on the right of the Via Appia) is described by Pliny in connection with 
a curious story of imperial times. There was a cobbler who had his 
stall in the Roman Forum, and who possessed a tame raven, which was 
a great favourite with the young Romans, to whom he would bid good 
day as he sate perched upon the rostra. At length he became quite a 
public character, and the indignation was so great when his master 
killed him with his hammer in a fit of rage at his spoiling some new 
leather, that they slew the cobbler and decreed a public funeral to the 
bird ; who was carried to the grave on a bier adorned with honorary 
crowns, preceded by a piper, and supported by two negroes in honour 
of his colour, — and buried — "ad rogum usque, qui constructus dextra 
Viae Appiae ad secundum lapidem in campo Rediculo appellate fuit." — • 
Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. x. c. 60. 



Returning to the Via Appia, we reach, on the right, the 
Basilica of S. Sebasfiano, rebuilt in 161 1 by Flaminio 
Ponzio for Cardinal Scipio Borghese, on the site of a 
church which had been founded by Constantine, where 
once existed the house and garden of the matron Lucina, 
in which she had buried the body of Sebastian, after his 
(second) martyrdom under Diocletian. The basilica con- 
tains nothing ancient, but the six granite columns in the 
portico. The altar covers the relics of the saint (a Gaul, a 
native of Narbonne, a Christian soldier under Diocletian), and 
the chapel of St. Sebastian has a statue of him in his youth, 
designed by Bernini and executed by Antonio Giorgetti. 

The almost colossal form lies dead, the head resting on his helmet 
and armour. It is evidently modelled from nature, and is perhaps the 
finest thing ever designed by Bernini. . . . It is probably from the 
association of arrows with his form and story that St. Sebastian has been 
regarded from the first ages of Christianity as the protecting saint against 
plague and pestilence ; Apollo was the deity who inflicted plague, 
and therefore was- invoked with prayer and sacrifice against it ; and to 
the honour of Apollo, in this particular character, St. Sebastian has 
succeeded." — Jameson s Sacred Art, p. 414. 

The original of the footprint in the Domine Quo Vadis 
is said to be preserved here. 

On the left of the entrance is the descent into the cata- 
combs, with the inscription : 

"In hoc sacrosancto loco qui dicitur ad Catacumbas, ubi sepulta 
fuerunt sanctorum martyrum corpora 174,000, ac 46 summorum pon- 
tificium pariterque martyrum. In altare in quo corpus divi Sebastiani 
Christi athletse jacet celebrans summus Pontifex S. Gregorius Magnus 
vidit angelum Dei candidiorem nive, sibi in tremendo sacrificio mini- 
strantem ac dicentem, * Hie est locus sacratissimus in quo est divina 



288 WALKS IN ROME. 

promissio et omnium peccatorum remissio, splendor et lux perpetua, 
sine fine laetitia, quam Christi martyr Sebastianus habere promeruit.' 
Prout Severanus Tom. P*'. pagina 450, ac etiam antiquissimae lapidese 
testantur tabulae. 

"Ideo in hoc insigne privilegiato altari, tam missas cantatae quam 
private, dum celebrantur, aniraas quae sunt in purgatorio pro quibus 
sacrificium offertur plenariam indulgentiam, et omnium suorum pecca- 
torum remissionem consequuntur prout ab angelo dictum fuit et summi 
pontifices confirmarunt." 

These are the catacombs which are most frequently 
visited by strangers, because they can always be seen on 
application to the monks attached to the church, — though 
they are of greatly inferior interest to those of St. Calixtus. 

' ' Though future excavations may bring to light much that is interest- 
ing in this cemetery, the small portion now accessible is, as a specimen 
of the Catacombs, utterly without value. Its only interest consists in 
its religious associations : here St. Bridget was wont to kiieel, rapt in 
contemplation ; here St. Charles Borromeo spent whole nights in prayer ; 
and here the heart of St. Philip Neri Avas so inflamed with divine love 
as to cause his veiy bodily frame to be changed." — Northcote' s Roman 
Catacombs, 

Owing to the desire in the early Christian Church of 
saving the graves of their first confessors and martyrs from 
desecration, almost all the catacombs were gradually 
blocked up, and by lapse of time their very entrances were 
forgotten. In the fourteenth century very few were still 
open. In the fifteenth century none remained except this 
of St. Sebastian, which continued to be frequented by 
pilgrims, and was called in all ancient documents '' coeme- 
terium ad catacumbas." 

At the back of the high-altar is an interesting half- 
subterranean building, attributed to Pope Liberius (352 — 
355, and afterwards adorned by Pope Damasus, who briefly 
tells its history in one of his inscriptions, which may still be 
seen here : 

" Hinc habitasse prius sanctos cognoscere debes, 
Nomina quisque Petri pariter Paulique requiris. 
Discipulos Oriens misit, quod sponte fatemur, 
Sanguinis ob meritum Christumque per astra sequuti, 
Aetherios petiere sinus et regna piorum. 
Roma suos potius meruit defendere cives. 
Haec Damasus vestras referat sidera laudes." 
** Here you should know that saints dwelt. Their names, if you ask 
them, were Peter and Paul. The East sent disciples, which we freely 
acknowledge. For the merit of their blood they followed Christ to the 
star..., and sOught the heavenly home and the kingdom of the blest. 



CATACOMB OF S. SEBASTIANO. 289 

Rome hov/ever deserved to defend her own citizens. May Damasus 
record these things for your praise, O new stars." 

"The two Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, were originally buried, 
the one at the Vatican, the other on the Ostian Way, at the spot where 
their respective basilicas now stand ; but, as soon as the Oriental 
Christians had heard of their death, they sent some of their brethren to 
remove their bodies, and bring them back to the East, where they con- 
sidered that they had a right to claim them as their fellow-citizens and 
countrymen. These so far prospered in their mission as to gain a 
momentary possession of the sacred relics, which they carried off, along 
the Appian Way, as far as the spot where the church of St. Sebastian 
was afterwards built. Here they rested for a while, to make all things 
ready for their journey, or, according to another account, were detained 
by a thunderstorm of extraordinary violence, which delay, however 
occasioned, was svJhcient to enable the Christians of Rome to overtake 
them and recover their lost treasui-e. These Roman Christians then 
buried the bodies, with the utmost secrecy, in a deep pit, which they 
dug on the very spot where they were. Soon, indeed, they were 
restored to their original places of sepulture, as we know from contem- 
porary authorities, and there seems reason to believe the old ecclesiast- 
ical tradition to be correct, which states them to have only remained in 
this temporary abode for a year and seven months. The body of 
St. Peter, however, was destmed to revisit it a second time, and for a 
longer period ; for when, at the beginning of the third century, Helio- 
gabalus made his circus at the Vatican, Calixtus, who was then pope, 
removed the relics of the Apostle to their former temporary resting- 
place, the pit on the Appian Way. But in A.D. 257, St. Stephen, the 
pope, having been discovered in this very cemetery and having suffered 
martyrdom there, the body of St. Peter was once more removed, and 
restored to its original tomb in the Vatican." — A-orthcote^s Roman 
Catacombs, 

In the passages of this catacomb are misguiding inscrip- 
tions placed here in 1409 by William, Archbishop of 
Bourges, calling upon the faithful to venerate here the 
tombs of Sta. Cecilia and of many of the martyred popes, 
who are buried elsewhere. The martyr St. Cyrinus is known 
to have been buried here from very early itineraries, but his 
grave has not been discovered. 

" When I was a boy, being educated at Rome, I used every Sunday, 
in company with other boys of my own age and tastes, to visit the 
tombs of the apostles and martyrs, and to go into the crypts excavated 
there in the bowels of the earth. The walls on either side as you enter 
are full of the bodies of the dead, and the whole place is so dark, that 
one seems almost to see the fulfilment of those words of the prophet, 
'Let them go down alive into Hades.' Here and there a little light, 
admitted from above, suffices to give a momentary relief to the horror 
of the darkness ; but as you go forwards, and find yourself again im- 
mersed in the utter blackness of night, the words of the poet come 
spontaneously to your mind : ' The very silence fills the soul with dread. ' " 
St. Jcr.vne {\.iy 354), In Ezck. ch. Ix. 



290 WALKS IN ROME. 

" A gaunt Franciscan friar, with a wild bright eye, was our only 
guide down into this profound and dreadful place. The naiTow ways 
and openings hither and thither, coupled with the dead and heavy air, 
soon blotted out, in all of us, any recollection of the track by which we 
had come ; and I could not help thinking, 'Good Heaven, if in a sudden 
fit of madness he should dash the torches out, or if he should be seized 
with a fit, what would become of us ! ' On we wandered, among 
martyrs' graves : passing great subteiranean vaulted roads, diverging in 
all directions, and choked up with heaps of stones, that thieves and 
murderers may not take refuge there, and form a population under 
Rome, even worse than that which lives between it and the sun. 
Graves, graves, graves ; graves of men, of women, of little children, 
who ran crying to the persecutors, * We are Christians ! we are 
Christians ! ' that they might be murdered with their parents ; graves 
with the palm of martyrdom roughly cut into their stone boundaries, 
and little niches, made to hold a vessel of the martyr s blood ; graves 
of some who lived down here, for years together, ministering to the 
rest, and preaching truth, and hope, and comfort, from the rude altars, 
that bear witness to their fortitude at this hour ; more roomy graves, 
but far more terrible, where hundreds, being surprised, were hemmed 
in and walled up ; buried before death, and killed by slow starvation. 

" 'The triumphs of the Faith are not above-ground in our splendid 
churches,' said the friar, looking round upon us, as we stopped to rest 
in one of the low passages, Avith bones and dust surrounding us on every 
side. ' They are here ! among the martyrs' graves ! ' He was a gentle, 
earnest man, and said it from his heart ; but when I thought how 
Christian men have dealt with one another ; how, perverting our most 
merciful religion, they have hunted down and tortured, bumt and 
beheaded, strangled, slaughtered, and oppressed each other ; I pictured 
to myself an agony surpassing any that this Dust had suffered with the 
breath of life yet lingering in it, and how these great and constant 
hearts would have been shaken — how they would have quailed and 
drooped — if a foreknowledge of the deeds that professing Christians 
would commit in the great name for which they died, could have rent 
them with its own unutterable anguish, on the cruel wheel, and bitter 
cross, and in the fearful fire." — Dickens. 

"Countless martyrs, they say, rest in these ancient sepulchres. In 
these dark depths the ancient Church took refuge from persecution ; 
there she laid her martyrs, and there, over their tombs, she chaunted 
hymns of triumph, and held communion with Him for whom they died. 
In that church I spend hours. I have no wish to descend into those 
sacred sepulchres, and pry among the graves the resurrection tramp will 
open soon enough. I like to think of the holy dead, lying undisturbed 
and quiet there ; of their spirits in Paradise ; of their faith triumphant 
in the city that massacred them. 

"No doubt they also had their perplexities, and wondered why the 
wicked triumph, and sighed to God, ' How long, O Lord, how long?'" 
— Schonberg Cotta Faviily. 

"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the 
souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony 
which they held : and they cried with a loud voice, saying. How long, 
O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on 



TOMB OF CECILIA ME TELL A, 291 

them that dwell on the earth ? And white robes were given unto every 
one of them ; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a 
little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that 
should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." — Rev. vi. 9— 11. 

In the valley beneath S. Sebastiano are the ruins of the 
Circus of Maxentitis, near those of a villa of that emperor. 
The circus was 1482 feet long, 244 feet broad, and was 
capable of containing 15,000 spectators, yet it is a miniature 
compared with the Circus Maximus, though very interesting 
as retaining in tolerable preservation all the different parts 
which composed a circus. The circular ruin near it was a 
Temple dedicated by Maxentius to his son Romulus. 

" Le jeune Romulus, etant mort, fut place au rang des dieux, dans 
cet olympe qui s'ecroulait. Son pere lui eleva un temple dont la partie 
inferieure se voit encore, et le cirque lui-meme fut peut-etre une de- 
pendance de ce temple funebre, car les courses de chars etaient un des 
honneurs que I'antiquite rendait aux morts, et sont souvent pour cela 
representees sur les tombeaux." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 360. 

These ruins are very picturesque, backed by the peaks 
of the Sabine range, which in winter are generally covered 
with snow. 

The opposite hill is crowned by the To7nb of Cecilia 
Metella, daughter of Quintus Metellus Creticus, and wife of 
Crassus. It is a round tower, seventy feet in diameter. 
The bulls' heads on the frieze gave it the popular name of 
Capo di Bove. The marble coating of the basement was 
carried off by Urban VIII. to make the fountain of Trevi. 
The battlements were added when the tomb was turned 
into a fortress by the Caetani in the thirteenth century. 

*' About two miles, or more, from the city gates, and right upon the 
roadside, is an immense round pile, sepulchral in its original purpose, 
like those already mentioned. It is built of great blocks of hewn stone, 
on a vast, square foundation of rough, agglomerated material, such as 
composes the mass of all the other ruinous tombs. But, whatever 
might be the cause, it is in a far better state of preservation than they. 
On its broad summit rise the battlements of a mediaeval fortress, out of 
the midst of which (so long since had time begun to crumble the supple- 
mental structure, and cover it with soil, by means of wayside dust) grow 
trees, bushes, and thick festoons of ivy. This tomb of a woman has 
become the dungeon -keep of a castle; and all the care that Cecilia 
Metella's husband could bestow, to secure endless peace for her beloved 
relics, only sufficed to make that handful of precious ashes the nucleus 
of battles, long ages after her death." — Hawthorne. 

*' There is a stern round tower of other days. 
Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone, 



292 WALKS IN ROME. 

Such as an army's baffled strength delays, 

Standing with half its battlements alone, 

And with two thousand years of ivy grown, 

The garland of eternity, where wave 

The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown ; — 

What was this tower of strength ? within its cave 

What treasure lay so lock'd, so hid? — a woman's grave. 
** But who was she, the lady of the dead, 

Tomb'd in a palace ? Was she chaste and fair ? 

Worthy a king's — or more — a Roman's bed ? 

What race of chiefs and heroes did she bear ? 

What daughter of her beauties was the heir ? 

How lived — how loved — how died she ? Was she not 

So honoured — and conspicuously there, 

Where meaner relics must not dare to rot. 

Placed to commemorate a more than mortal lot ? 
*' Perchance she died in youth : it may be, bow'd 

With woes far heavier than the ponderous tomb 

That weigh'd upon her gentle dust, a cloud 

Might gather o'er her beauty, and a gloom 

In her dark eye, prophetic of the doom 

Heaven gives its favourites — early death ; yet shed 

A sunset charm around her, and illume 

With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead, 

Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red. 
** Perchance she died in age — surviving all. 

Charms, kindred, children — with the silver grey 

On her long tresses, which might yet recall. 

It may be, still a something of the day 

When they were braided, and her proud array 

And lovely form were envied, praised, and eyed 

By Rome — but whither would Conjectui-e stray ? 

Thus much alone we know — Metella died. 

The wealthiest Roman's wife: Behold his love or pride! " 

Childe Harold. 

Close to the tomb are the ruins of a Gotliic church of 
the Caetani. 

"Le tombeau de Cecilia-Met ella etait devenu un chateau fort alors 
aux mains des Caetani, et autour du chateau s'etait forme un village 
avec son eglise, dont on a recemment retrouve les restes." — Ajupere, 
Voyage Dantestpie. 

— -It is at Cecilia Metella's tomb that the beauties of the 
Via Appia really begin. A very short distance further, we 
emerge from the walls which have hitherto shut in the road 
on either side, and enjoy uninterrupted views over the 
Latin plain, strewn with its ruined castles and villages — and 
the long lines of acjueducts, to the Sabine and Alban 
mountains. 



VIA APPIA. 293 

"The Via Appia is a magnificent promenade, amongst ruinous 
tombs, the massive remains of which extend for many miles over the 
Roman Campagna. The powerful families of ancient Rome loved to 
build monuments to their dead by the side of the public road, probably 
to exhibit at once their affection for their relations and their own power 
and affluence. Most of these monuments are now nothing but heaps of 
ruins, upon which are placed the statues and sculptures which have 
been found in the earth or amongst the rubbish. Those inscriptions 
which have been found on the Via Appia bear witness to the grief of the 
living for the dead, but never to the hope of reunion. On a great 
number of sarcophagi or the friezes of tombs may be seen the dead 
sitting or lying as if they were alive, some seem to be praying. Many 
heads have great individuality of character. Sometimes a white marble 
figure, beautifully draped, projects from these heaps of ruins, but with- 
out head or hands ; sometimes a hand is stretched out, or a portion of 
a figure rises from the tomb. It is a street through monuments of the 
dead, across an immense churchyard ; for the desolate Roman Campagna 
may be regarded as such. To the left it is scattered with the ruins of 
colossal aqueducts, which, during the time of the emperors, conveyed 
lakes and rivers to Rome, and which still, ruinous and destroyed, 
delight the eye by the beautiful proportions of their arcades. To the 
right is an immense prairie, without any other limit than that of the 
ocean, which, however, is not seen from it. The country is desolate, 
and only here and there are there any huts or trees to be seen." — 
Frederika Bremer. 

"For the space of a mile or two beyond the gate of S. Sebastiano, 
this ancient and famous road is as desolate and disagreeable as most of 
the other Roman avenues. It extends over small, imcomfortable 
paving-stones, between brick and plastered walls, which are very 
solidly constructed, and so high as almost to exclude a view of the 
surrounding country. The houses are of the most uninviting aspect, 
neither picturesque, nor homelike and social ; they have seldom or 
never a door opening on the wayside, but are accessible only from the 
rear, and frown inhospitably upon the traveller through iron-grated 
windows. Here and there appears a dreary inn, or a wine-shop, desig- 
nated by the withered bush beside the entrance, within which you 
discover a stone-built and sepulchral interior, where guests refresh 
themselves with sour bread and goat's-milk cheese, washed down with 
wine of dolorous acerbity. 

"At frequent intervals along the roadside, up rises the ruin of an 
ancient tomb. As they stand now, these structures are immensely 
high, and broken mounds of conglomerated brick, stone, pebbles, and 
earth, all molten by time into a mass as solid and indestructible as if 
each tomb were composed of a single boulder of granite. When first 
erected, they were cased externally, no doubt, with slabs of polished 
marble, artfully wrought, bas-reliefs, and all such suitable adornments, 
and were rendered majestically beautiful by grand architectural de- 
signs. This antique splendour has long since been stolen from the 
dead, to decorate the palaces and churches of the living. Nothing 
remains to the dishonoured sepulchres, except their massiveness. 

* ' Even the pyramids form hardly a stranger spectacle, or a more alien 
from human sympathies, than the tombs of the Appian Way, with their 



294 WALKS IN ROME. 

gigantic height, breadth, and solidity, defying time and the elements, 
and far too mighty to be demolished by an ordinary earthquake. Here 
you may see a modern dwelling, and a gai-den with its vines and olive- 
trees, perched on the lofty dilapidation of a tomb, which forms a preci- 
pice of fifty feet in depth on each of the four sides. There is a house en 
that funeral mound, where generations of children have been born, 
and successive lives have been spent, undisturbed by the ghost of the 
stern Roman whose ashes were so preposterously burdened. Other 
sepulchres wear a crown of grass, shrul)bery, and forest-trees, which 
throw out a broad sweep of branches, having had time, twice over, to 
be a thousand years of age. On one of them stands a tower, which, 
though immemorially more modern than the tomb, was itself built by 
im.memorial hands, and is now rifted quite from top to bottom by a vast 
fissure of decay ; the tomb-hillock, its foundation, being still as firm as 
ever, and likely to endure until the last trump shall rend it wide 
asundei, and summon forth its unknown dead. 

"Yes, its unknown dead! For, except in one or two doubtful 
instances, these mountainous sepulchral edifices have not availed to 
keep so much as the bare name of an individual or a family from ob- 
livion. Ambitious of everlasting remembrance as they were, the 
slumberers might just as well have gone quietly to rest, each in his 
pigeon-hole of a columbarium, or under his little green hillock, in a 
grave-yard, without a headstone to mark the spot. It is rather satis- 
factorj- than otherwise, to think that all these idle pains have turned out 
so utterly abortive." — Hawthorne. 

Near the fourth milestone, is the tomb of Marcus Servilius 
Quartus (with an inscription), restored by Canova in 1808. 
A bas-reUef of the death of Atys, killed by Adrastus, a 
short distance beyond this, has been suggested as part of 
the tomb of Seneca, who was put to death " near the fourth 
milestone" by order of Nero. An inscribed tomb beyond 
this is that of Sextus Pompeius Justus. 

Near this, in the Campagna on the left, are some small 
remains, supposed to be those of a Temple of Juno. 

Beyond this a number of tombs can be identified, but 
none of any importance. Such are the tombs of Plinius 
Eutychius, erected by Plinius Zosimus, a freedman of 
Pliny the younger ; of Caius Licinius ; the Doric tomb of 
the tax-gatherer Claudius Philippanus, inscribed " Tito . 
Claudio . Secundo , Philippiano . Coactori . Flavia . Irene. 
Vxori Indulgentissimo ; " of Rabinius, with three busts in 
relief ; of Hermodorus ; of Elsia Prima, priestess of Isis ; of 
Marcus C. Cerdonus, with the bas-relief of an elephant 
bearing a burning altar. 

Beyond the fifth milestone, two circular mounds with 
basements; of peperino, were considered by Canina to be 
the tombs of the Horatii and Curiatii. 



ROMA VECCHIA. 29$ 

On the opposite side of the road is the exceedingly pic- 
turesque mediaeval fortress, known as To7-re Mezza Strada, 
into which are incorporated the remains of the Church of 
Sta. Maria Nuova, or della Gloria. Behind this extend a 
vast assemblage of ruins, which form a splendid foreground 
to the distant mountain view, and whose size has led to 
their receiving the popular epithet of Roi?ia Vecchia. Here 
was the favourite villa of the Emperor Commodus, where 
he was residing, when the people, excited by a sudden im- 
pulse during the games of the Circus, rose and poured out 
of Rome against him — as the inhabitants of Paris to Ver- 
sailles, and refused to depart, till, terrified into action by 
the entreaties of his concubine Marcia, he tossed the head 
of the unpopular Cleander to tliern out of the window, and 
had the brains of that minister's child dashed out against 
the stones. This villa is proved by the discovery of a 
number of pipes bearing their names to have been that of 
the brothers Condianus and Maximus, of the great family 
of the Quintilii, which was confiscated by Commodus. 

" L'histoire des deux freres est interessante et romanesque. Condi- 
anus et Maximus Quintilius etaient distingues par la science, les talents 
militaires, la richesse, et surtout par une tendresse mutuelle qui ne 
s'etait jamais dementie. Servant toujours ensemble, I'un se faisait le 
lieutenant de I'autre. Bien qu'etrangers a toute conspiration, leur vertu 
les fit soup9onner d'etre peu favorables a Commode ; ils furent proscrits 
et moururent ensemble comme ils avaient vecu. L'un d'eux avait un 
fils nomme Sextus. Au moment de la mort de son pere et deson oncle, 
ce fils se trouvait en Syrie. Pensant bien que le meme sort I'attendait, 
il feignit de mourir pour sauver sa vie. Sextus, apres avoir bu sang du 
lievre, monta a cheval, se laissa tomber, vomit le sang qu'il avait pris et 
qui parut etre son propre sang. On mit dans sa biere le corps d'un 
belier qui passa pour son cadavre, et il disparut. Depuis ce temps, il 
erra sous divers deguisements ; mais on sut qu'il avait echappe, et on se 
mit a sa recherche. Beaucoup furent tues parce-qu'ils lui ressemblaient 
ou parce-qu'ils etaient soupconnes de lui avoir donne asile. II n'est pas 
bien sur qu'il ait ete atteint, que sa tete se trouvat parmi celles qu'on 
apporta a Rome et qu'on dit etre la sienne. Ce qui est certain, c'est 
qu'apres la mort de Commode, un aventurier, tente par la belle villa et 
par les grandes richesses des Quintilii, se donna pour Sextus et reclama 
son heritage. II parait ne pas avoir manque d'adresse et avoir connu 
celui pour lequel il voulut qu'on le prit, car par ses reponses il se tira 
tres-bien de toutes les enquetes. Peut-etre s'etait-il lie avec Sextus et 
I'avait-il assassine ensuite. Cependant I'empereur Pertinax, su'cces- 
seur de Commode, I'ayant fait venir, eut I'idee de lui parler grec. Le 
vrai Sextus connaissait parfaitement cette langue. Le faux Sextus, 
qui lie savait pas le grec, repondit tout de travers, et sa fraude fut ainsi 
decouverte." — Amph-e, Emp. ii. 253. 



296 WALKS IN ROME. 

On the left of the Via Appia, appears a huge monu- 
ment, on a narrow base, called the Tomb of the Metelli. 
Beyond this, after the fifth milestone, are the tombs of 
Sergius Demetrius, a wine merchant ; of Lucius Arrius ; 
of Septimia Gallia ; and of one of the Caecilii, in whose 
sepulchre, according to Eutropius, was buried Pompon ius 
Atticus, the friend of Cicero, whose daughter Vipsania 
was the first wife of Agrippa, and whose granddaughter 
Vipsania Agrippina was the first wife of Tiberius. 

Close to the sixth milestone is the mass of masonry 
sometimes called " Casale Rotondo," or " Cotta's Tomb," 
from that name being found there inscribed on a stone, 
but generally attributed to Messala Corvinus, the poet, and 
friend of Horace, and believed to have been raised to him 
by his son Valerius Maximus Cotta, mentioned in Ovid. 

*'Te autem in turba non ausim, Cotta, silere, 
Pieridum lumen, praesidiumque fori." 

Epist. xvi. 

This tomb was even larger than that of Cecilia Metella, 
and was turned into a fortress by the Orsini in the fifteenth 
century. 

Beyond this are tombs identified as those of P. Quin- 
tius, tribune of the sixteenth legion ; Marcus Julius, 
steward of Claudius ; Publius Decumius Philomusus (with 
appropriate bas-reliefs of two mice nibbling a cake) ; and 
of Cedritius Flaccianius. 

Passing on the left the Tor di Selce, erected upon a huge 
unknown tomb, are the tombs of Titia Eucharis, and of 
Atilius Evodus, jeweller (margaritarius), on the Via Sacra, 
Avith the inscription, " Hospes resiste — aspice ubi continen- 
tur ossa hominis boni misericordis amantis pauperis." Near 
the eighth milestone are ruins attributed to the temples of 
Silvanus and of Hercules, — of Avhich the latter is mentioned 
in Martial's Epigrams, beyond which were the villas of 
Bassus and of Persius. The last tomb identified is that of 
Quintus Verranius. Near the ninth milestone is a tomb 
supposed to be that of Gallienus (Imp. 268), who lived 
close by in a villa, amid the ruins of which " the Disco- 
bolus " was discovered. 

From the stream called Pontecello, near the tenth mile- 
stone, the road gradually ascends to Albano, passing 
several large but unnamed tombs. At the Osteria delle 



ASSOCIATIONS OF THE VIA APPIA. 297 

Frattocchie it joins the Via Appia Nuova. Close to the 
gate of Albano, it passes on the left the tall tomb attributed 
to Pompey the Great, in accordance with the statement of 
Plutarch, and in spite of the epigram of Varro Atacinus, 
which says : — 

" Marmoreo Licinius tumulo jacet ; at Cato parvo ; 
Pompeius nullo : quis putet esse Deus." 

Among the many processions which have passed along 
this road, perhaps the most remarkable have been that 
bearing back to Rome the dead body of Sylla, who died 
at Pozzuoh, " in a gilt litter, with royal ornaments, trumpets 
before him, and horsemen behind ; " * and the funeral of 
Augustus, who dying at Nola (a.d. 14), was brought to 
Bovillae, and remained there a month in the sanctuary of 
the Julian family, after which the knights brought the body 
in solemn procession to his palace on the Palatine. 

But throughout a walk along the Appian Way, the one 
great Christian interest of this world-famous road, will, to 
the Christian visitor, overpower all others. 

"And so we M^ent toward Rome. 

"And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to 
meet us as far as Appii-forum, and the Three Taverns : whom when 
Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage. 

"And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners 
to the captain of the guard ; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself, 
with a soldier that kept him." — Acts xxviii. 14 — 16. 

"It is not without its manifold uses to remember that, amidst the 
dim and wavering traditions of later times, one figure at least stands out 
clear and distinct and undoubted, and this figure is the Apostle Paul. 
He, whatever we may think concerning any other apostle or apostolic 
man in connection with Rome, he, beyond a shadow of doubt, appears ' 
in the New Testament as her great teacher. No criticism or scepticism 
of modern times has ever questioned the perfect authenticity of that last 
chapter of the Acts, which gives the account of his journey, stage by 
stage, till he set foot within the walls of the city. However much we 
maybe compelled to distrust any particular traditions concerning special 
localities of his life and death, we cannot doubt for a moment that his 
eye rested on the same general view of sky and plain and mountain ; 
that his feet trod the pavement of the same Appian road ; that his way 
lay through the same long avenue of ancient tombs on which we now 
look and wonder ; that he entered (and there we have our last authentic 
glimpse of his progress) through the arch of Drusus, and then is lost to 
our view in the great Babylon of Rome." — A. P. Stanle)^ Sermo7is. 

" When St. Paul was approaching Rome, all the bases of the moun- 
tains were (as indeed they are partially now) clustered round with the 

* Ampere, Hist. Rom. iv. 402. 



298 WALKS IN ROME. 

villas and gardens of wealthy citizens. The Appian Way climbs and 
then descends along its southern slope. After passing Lanuvium it 
crossed a crater-like valley or immense substructions, which still remain. 
Here is Aricia, an easy stage from Rome. The town was above the 
road, and on the hillside swarms of beggars beset travellers as they 
passed. On the summit of the next rise, Paul of Tarsus would obtain 
his first view of Rome. There is no doubt that the prospect was, in 
many respects, very different from the view which is now obtained from 
the same spot. It is true that the natural features of the scene are 
unaltered. The long wall of blue Sabine mountains, with ^oracte in • 
the distance, closed in the Campagna, which stretched far across to the 
sea and round the base of the Alban hills. But ancient Rome was not, 
like modern Rome, impressive from its solitude, standing alone, with 
its one conspicuous cupola, in the midst of a desolate though beautiful 
waste. St. Paul would see a vast city, covering the Campagna, and 
almost continuously connected by its suburbs with the villas on the hill 
where he stood, and with the bright towns which clustered on the sides 
of the mountains opposite. Over all the intermediate space were the 
houses and gardens, through which aqueducts and roads might be traced 
in converging lines towards the confused mass of edifices which formed 
the city of Rome. Here no conspicuous building, elevated above the 
rest, attracted the eye or the imagination. Ancient Rome had neither 
,_cupola nor campanile, still less had it any of those spires which give 
life to all the capitals of northern Christendom. It was a widespread 
aggregate of buildings, which, though separated by narrow streets and 
open spaces, appeared, when seen from near Aricia, blended into one 
indiscriminate mass : for distance concealed the contrasts which divided 
the crowded habitations of the poor and the dark haunts of filth and 
misery— from the theatres and colonnades, the baths, the temples, and 
palaces with gilded roofs, flashing back the sun. 

" The road descended into the plain at Bovilloe, six miles from Aricia : 
and thence it proceeded in a straight line, with the sepulchres of illus- 
trious families on either hand. One of these was the burial-place of the 
Julian gens, with which the centurion who had charge of the prisoners 
was in some way connected. As they proceeded over the old pavement, 
among gardens and modern houses, and approached nearer the busy 
metropolis — the ' conflux issuing forth or entering in ' in various cos- 
tumes and on various errands, — vehicles, horsemen, and foot-passengers, 
soldiers and laboui-ers, Romans and foreigners, — became more crowded 
and confusing. The houses grew closer. They were already in Rome. 
It was impossible to define the commencement of the city. Its populous 
portions extended far beyond the limits marked out by Servius. The 
ancient wall, with its once sacred pomocrium, was rather an object for 
antiquarian interest, like the walls of York or Chester, than any pro- 
tection against the enemies, who were kept far aloof by the legions on 
the frontier. 

** Yet the Porta Capena is a spot which we can hardly leave without 
lingering for a moment. Under this arch — which was perpetually dripping 
with the water of the aqueduct that went over it — had passed all those 
who, since a remote period of the republic, had travelled by the Appian 
Way, — victorious generals with their legions, returning from foreign 
service, — emperors and cour/iers, vagrant representatives of every form 



ASSOCIATIONS OF THE VIA APPIA. 299 

of heathenism, Greeks and Asiatics, Jews and Christians. From this 
point entering within the city, JuHus and his prisoners moved on, with 
the Aventine on their left, close round the base of the Coelian, and 
through the hollow ground which lay between this hill and the Palatine : 
thence over the low ridge called Velia, where afterwards was built the 
arch of Titus, to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem ; and then 
descending, by the Via Sacra, into that space which was the centre of 
imperial power and imperial magnificence, and associated also with the 
most glorious recollections of the republic. The Forum was to Rome, 
what the Acropolis was to Athens, the heart of all the characteristic 
interest of the place. Here was the Milliarium Aureum, to which the 
roads of all the provinces converged. All around were the stately 
buildings, which were raised in the closing years of the republic, and by 
the earlier emperors. In front was the Capitoline Hill, illustrious long 
before the invasion of the Gauls. Close on the left, covering that hill, 
whose name is associated in every modem European language with the 
notion of imperial splendour, were the vast ranges of the palace — the 
* house of Caesar' (Philipp. iv. 22). Here were the household troops 
quartered in ?>. prcetormm attached to the palace. And here (unless, in- 
deed, it was in the great Praetorian Camp outside the city wall) Julius 
gave up his prisoner to Burrus, the Praetorian Prefect, whose official duty 
it was to keep in custody all accused persons who were to be tried before 
the Emperor." — Conybeare and Howson. 



CHAPTER X. 
THE OUIRINAL AND VIMINAL. 

Palazzo Barberini — Palazzo Albani — S. Carlo a Quattro Fontane — 
S. Andrea a Monte Cavallo — Quirinal Palace — Palazzo della Con- 
sulta — Palazzo Rospigliosi — Colonna Gardens and Temple of the 
Sun — S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo — Sta. Caterina di Siena — SS. 
Domenico e Sisto — Sta. Agata dei Goti — Sta. Maria in Monte — 
S. Lorenzo Pane e Perna — Sta. Pudentiana — S. Paolo Primo 
Eremita— S. Dionisio — S. Vitale. 

TT is difficult to determine the exact limits of what in 
■*- ancient times were regarded as the Quirinal and 
Viminal hills. They, like the Esquiline and Coelian, are 
" in fact merely spurs or tongues of hill, projecting inwards 
from a common base, the broad table-land, which slopes on 
the other side almost imperceptibly into the Campagna.'"^ 
That, which is described in this chapter as belonging to 

* Merivale, Romans under the Empire, ch. xi. 



300 WALKS IN ROME. 

these two hills, is chiefly the district to the right of the Via 
Quattro Fontane, and its continuations — which extend in a 
straight line to Sta. Maria Maggiore. 

The Quirinal, like all the other hills, except the Palatine 
and the Coelian, belonged to the Sabines in the early period 
of Roman history, and is full of records of their occupation. 
They had a Capitol here which is believed to have been 
long anterior to that on the Capitoline, and which was 
crowned by a temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. This 
Sabine capitol occupied the site of the present Palazzo 
Rospigliosi. 

The name Quirinal is derived from the Sabine word 
Qiiiris — signifying a lance, which gave the Sabines their 
name of Quirites, or lance-bearers, and to their god the 
name Quirinus.* After his death Romulus received this 
title, and an important temple was raised to him on the 
Quirinal by Numa,t under this name, thus identifying him 
with Janus Quirinus, the national god. This temple was sur- 
rounded by a sacred grove mentioned by Ovid. % It was 
rebuilt by the consul L. Papirius Cursor, to commemorate 
his triumph after the third Samnite war, B.C. 293, when he 
adonied it with a sun-dial {solarium hoi-ologmm)^ the first set 
up in Rome, which, however, not being constructed for the 
right latitude, did not show the time correctly. This defect 
was not remedied till nearly a century afterwards, when 
Q. Marcius Philippus set up a correct dial. § In front of this 
temple grew two celebrated myrtle-trees, one called Patricia^ 
the other Flebeia, which shared the fortunes of their re- 
spective orders, as the orange-tree at Sta. Sabina now does 
that of the Dominicans. Thus, up to the fifth century, 
Patricia flourished gloriously, and Plebeia pined ; but from 
the time when the plebeians completely gained the upper 
hand, Patricia withered away. || The temple was rebuilt by 
Augustus, and Dion Cassius states that the number of pillars 
by which it was surrounded accorded with that of the years 
of his life.lT 

Adjoining the temple was a portico : 

" Vicini pete porticum Quiriiii : 
Turbam nou habet otiosiorera 
Pompeius." Martial^ xi. Ep. i. 

* AmptSre, Hist. Rom. i. 141. t Dionysiiis, ii. 63. 

X Ovid, Met. xiv. 452, 453. § Dyer's Rome, p. 95. 

II Pliny, Hist. Nat. xv. 35, 2. Ij Dion Cass. liv. 



THE QUIRINAL, 301 



"Officium eras 



Primo sole mihi peragendum in valle Quirini. ' 

yirueiial, Sat. ii. 132. 

Hard by was a temple of Fortuna Publica, 

"Qui dicet, Quondam sacvata est colle Quirini 
Hac Fortuna die Publica ; verus erit." 

Ovid, Fast. iv. 375. 

also an altar to Mamurius, an ancient Sabine divinity, pro- 
bably identical with Mars, and a temple of Salus, or 
Health, which gave a name to the Porta Salutaria, which 
must have stood nearly on the site of the present Quattro 
Fontane, and near which, not inappropriately, was a temple 
of Fever, in the Via S. Vitale, where fever is still prevalent. 

The site of the temple of Quirinus is ascertained to have 
been nearly that now occupied by S. Andrea a Monte 
Cavallo. On the opposite side of the street, where part of 
the papal palace now stands, was the temple of Semo- 
Sanctus, the reputed father of Sabinus. Between these two 
temples was the House of Pomponius Atticus (the friend 
and correspondent of Cicero), a situation which gave an 
opportunity for the witticism of Cicero when he said that 
Caesar would rather dwell with Quirinus than with Salus, 
meaning that he would rather be at war than be in good 
health/"^ 

In the same neighbourhood lived Martial the epigram- 
matist, " on the third floor, in a narrow street," whence he 
had a view as far as the portico of Agrippa, near the Fla- 
minian Way. Below, probably on the site now occupied by 
the Piazza Barberini, was a Circus of Flora. 

*' Mater, ades, florum, ludis celebranda jocosis : 
Distuleram partes mense priore tuas. 
Incipis Aprili : transis in tempora Maii. 

Alter te, fugiens ; cum venit, alter habet. 
Quum tua sint cedantque tibi confinia mensum, 

Convenit in laudes ille vel ille tuas. 
Circus in hunc exit, clamataque palma theatris : 
Hoc quoque cum Circi munere carmen eat." 

Ovid, Fast. v. 183. 

Among the great families who lived on the Quirinal were 
the Cornelii, who had a street of their own, Vicus Come- 
liorum, probably on the slopes behind the present Colonna 

* " De Csesare vicino scripseram ad te, quia cognoram ex t.uis liieris, eum avwaov. 
Quirino malo, quain Saluti." Ad Att. xii. 45. 



302 WALKS IN ROME, 

Palace ; and the Flavii, who were of Sabine origin. * Domi- 
tian was born here in the house of the Flavii, afterwards con- 
secrated by him as a temple, in which Vespasian, Titus, and 
Domitian himself were buried, and Julia the ugly daughter 
of Titus — well known from her statues in the Vatican. 

As some fragments remain of the two buildings erected 
on the Quirinal during the later empire, Aurelian's Temple of 
the Sun, and the Baths of Constantine, they will be noticed 
in the regular course. 

On the ascent of the hill, just above the Piazza del 
Tritone, is the noble Bai'berini Palace, built by Urban VIII. 
from designs of Carlo Maderno, continued by Borromini, 
and finished by Bernini, in 1640. It is screened from the 
street by a magnificent railing between columns, erected 
1865-67, and if this railing could be continued, and the 
block of houses towards the piazza removed, it would be far 
the most splendid private palace in Rome. 

This immense building is a memorial of the magnificence 
and ambition of Urban VIII. Its size is enormous, the 
smallest apartment in the palace containing forty rooms. 
The Prince at present inhabits the right wing; with him 
lives his elder brother the Duke, who abdicated the family 
honours in his favour. In the left wing — occupied in the 
beginning of this century by the ex-king (Charles VII.) and 
queen of Spain, and the " Prince of Peace " — is the huge 
apartment of the late Cardinal Barberini, now uninhabited. 
On this side is the grand staircase, upon which is placed a lion 
in high relief, found on the family property at Palestrina, 
It is before this lion that Canova is said to have lain for 
hours upon the pavement, studying for his tomb of Clement 
XIII. in St. Peter's. T\\t guarda-roba, badly kept, contains 
many curious relics of family grandeur ; amongst them is a 
sedan-chair, painted by Titian. 

The Library (open on Thursdays from nine to two) con- 
tains a most valuable collection of MSS., about 7000 in 
number, brought together by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, 
nephew of Urban VIII. They include collections of 
letters of Galileo, Bembo, and Bellarmine ; the official 
reports to Urban VIII., relating to the state of Catholicism 

* Vespasi.in had a brother named Sabinus ; his son's name recalls tVat of Titui 
Tatius. 



PALAZZO BARBERINI. 303 

in England in the time of Charles I. ; a copy of the Bible 
in the Samaritan character ; a Bible of the fourth century ; 
several MSS. copies of Dante ; a missal illuminated hy 
Ghirlandajo ; and a book of sketches of ancient Roman 
edifices, of 1465, by Giulianode Sangallo, — most interesting 
to the antiquarian and architect, as preserving the forms 
of many public buildings which have disappeared since that 
date. Among the 50,000 printed books is a Hebrew Bible 
of 1788, one of the twelve known copies of the complete 
edition of Soncino ; a Latin Plato, by Ficino, with marginal 
notes by Tasso and his father Bernardo; a Dante of 1477, 
with notes by Bembo, &c. 

In the right wing is a huge Hall (adorned with second- 
rate statues), with a grand ceiling by Pidro da Corto7ia 
(1596 — 1669), representing '' II Trionfo della Gloria," the 
Forge of Vulcan, Mmerva annihilating the Titans, and 
other mythological subjects — much admired by Lanzi, and 
considered by Kugler to be the most important work of 
the artist. Four vast frescoes of the Fathers of the Church 
are preserved here, having been removed from the dome 
of St, Peter's, where they were replaced with mosaics by 
Urban VIII. Below are other frescoes by Pietro da Cortona, 
a portrait of Urban VIII., and some tapestries illustrative of 
the events of his reign and of his own intense self-esteem — • 
thus the Virgin and Angels are represented bringing in the 
ornaments of the papacy at his coronation, &c. But the 
conceit of Pope Urban reaches its climax in a room at 
the top of the house, which exhibits a number of the 
Barberini bees (the family crest) flocking against the sun, 
and eclipsing it — to typify the splendour of the family. The 
Will of Pope Urban VIII. is a very curious document, pro- 
viding against the extinction of the family in every apparent 
condngency ; this, however, now seems likely to take place ; 
the heir is a Sciarra. The pillars in front of the palace, and 
all the surrounding buildings, teem with the bees of the 
Barberini, which may also be seen on the Propaganda and 
many other great Roman edifices, and which are creeping 
up the robe of Urban VIII. in St Peter's. 

On the right, on entering the palace, is the small Collection 
of Picticres (open when the custode chooses to be there), 
indifferently lodged for a building so magnificent. We may 
notice :— 



304 WALJCS LV ROME, 

2nd Room. — 

34. Urban VIII.: Ai^drea Sacchi. 

35. A Cardinal : Titian. 

48. Madonna and Child, St. John, and St, Jerome: Frimia. 

54. Madonna and Child : Sodonia. 

58. Madonna and Child : Gioz-a7ini Bellini. 

63. Daughter of Raphael Mengs : Mengs. 

67. Portrait of himself : Masaccio. 

74. Adam and Eve : Domenichino. 

2,rd Room. — 

73. The "Schiava:" Palma Vecchio 
**The so-called Slave (a totally unmeaning name) is probably a mere 
school picture, of grand beauty, but with too clumsy a style of drapery, 
too cold an expression, and too brown a carnation for Titian, — to 
whom it is attributed."— A'7/^/d'r. 

76. Castel Gondolfo : Claude Lorraine. 

78. Portrait : Bronzino. 

79. Christ among the Doctors — painted in five days, in 1506 : 

Albert Diircr. 

81. '' The mother of Beatrice Cenci " ? Caravaggio. 

82. The Fornarina (with the painter's name on the armlet) 

Raphael. 
"The history of this person, to whom Raphael was attached even to 
his death, is obscure, nor are we very clear with regard to her likenesses. 
In the tribune at Florence there is a portrait, inscribed with the date 
1 5 12, of a very beautiful woman holding ihe fur trimming of her mantle 
with her right hand, which is said to represent her. The picture is 
decidedly by Raphael, but can hardly represent the Fornarina ; at least 
it has no resemblance to this portrait, Avhich has the name of Raphael 
on the armlet, and of the authenticity of which (particularly with respect 
to the subject) there can hardly be a doubt. In this the figure is seated, 
and is uncovered to the waist ; she draws a light drapery around her ; a 
shawl is twisted round her head. The execution is beautiful and deli- 
cate, although the lines are sufficiently defined ; the forms are fine and 
not without beauty, but at the same time not free from an expression of 
coarseness and common life. The eyes are large, dark, and full of 
fire, and seem to speak of brighter days. There are repetitions of this 
picture, from the school of Raphael, in Roman galleries." — Kugler. 

86. Death of Germanicus : Poussin. 

88. Seaport: Claude Loi-raine. 

90. Holy Family : And7'ea del Sarto. 

93. Annunciation : Botticelli. 

But the interest of this collection centres entirely around 
two portraits — that (81) of Lucrezia, the unhappy wife of 
Francesco Cenci, by Scipio7U Gaelani, and that (85) of 
Beatrice Cenci, by Guide Re?ii. 

" The portrait of Beatrice Cenci is most interesting as a just repre- 
sentation of one of the loveliest specimens of the workmanship of nature. 
There is a fixed and pale composure upon the features ; she seems sad 



PORTRAIT OF BEATRICE CEXCI. 305 ^ 

and stricken down in spirit, yet the despair thus expressed is lightened 
by the patience of gentleness. Her head is bound with folds of white 
drapery, from which the yellow strings of her golden hair escape, and 
fall about her neck. The moulding of her face is exquisitely delicate ; 
the eyebrows are distinct and arched ; the lips have that permanent 
meaning of imagination and sensibility which suffering has not repressed, 
and which it seems as if death scarcely could extinguish. Her forehead 
is large and clear ; her eyes, which we are told Avere remarkable for 
their vivacity, are swollen with weeping, and lustreless, but beautifully 
tender and serene. In the whole mien there is a simplicity and dignity, 
which, united with her exqui-site loveliness and deep sorrow, is inex- 
pressibly pathetic, Beatrice Cenci appears to have been one of those 
persons in whom energy and gentleness dwell together without destroy- 
ing one another ; her nature simple and profound. The crimes and 
misei-ies in which she was an actor and sufferer, are as the mask and the 
mantle in which circumstances clothed her for her- impersonation on the 
scene of the world." — Shdleyi's Preface to the Cenci. 

" The picture of Beatrice Cenci represents simply a female head ; a 
very youthful, girlish, perfectly beautiful face, enveloped in white dra- 
pery, from beneath which strays a lock or two of what seems a rich", 
though hidden luxuriance of auburn hair. The eyes are large and 
brown, and meet those of the spectator, evidently with a straiige, in- 
effectual effort to escape. There is a little redness about the eyes, very 
slightly indicated, so that you would question whether or no the girl 
had been weeping. The whole face is very quiet ; there is no distor- 
tion or disturbance of any single feature ; nor is it easy to see why 
the expression is not cheerful, or why a single touch of the artist's 
pencil should not brighten it into joyousness. But, in fact, it is the very 
saddest picture ever painted or conceived ; it involves an unfathomable 
depth of sorrow, the sense of which comes 40 the observer by a soit of 
intuition. It is a sorrow that removes this beautiful girl out of the 
sphere of humanity, and sets her in a far off region, the remoteness of 
which, while yet her face is so close before us, — makes us shiver as at 
a spectre. You feel all the time you look at Beatrice, as if she were 
trying to escape from your gaze. She knows that her sorrow is so 
strange and immense, that she ought to be solitary for ever both for 
the world's sake and her own ; and this is the reason we feel such a 
distance between Beatrice and ourselves, even Avhen our eyes meet hers. 
It is infinitely heart-breaking to meet her glance, and to know that 
nothing can be done to help or comfort her, neither does she ask help 
or comfort, knowing the hopelessness of her case better than we do. 
She is a fallen angel — fallen and yet sinless : and it is only this depth 
of sorrow with its weight and darkness, that keeps her down to earth, 
and brings her within our view even while it sets her beyond our reach." 
— Hawthorne. 

" TJie portrait of Beatrice Cenci is a picture almost impossible to be 
forgotten. Through the transcendent sweetness and beauty of the face, 
there is a something shining out that haunts me. I see it now, as I 
see this paper, or my pen. The head is loosely draped in Avhite ; the 
light hair falling down below the linen folds. She has turned suddenly 
towards you ; and there is an expression in the eyes — although they 
are very tender and gentle — as if the wildness of a momentary terror, or 



3o6 WALKS IN ROME. 

distraction, had been struggled with and overcome, that instant ; ind 
nothmg but a celestial hope, and a beautiful sorrow, and a desolate 
earthly helplessness remained. Some stories say that Guido painted 
it the night before her execution ; some other stories, that he pakited 
it from memory, after having seen her on her way to the scaffold. I 
am willing to believe that, as you see her on his canvas, so she turned 
towards him, in the crowd, from the first sight of the axe, and stamped 
upon his mind a look which he has stamped on mine as though I had 
stood beside him in the concourse. The guilty palace of the Cenci : 
blighting a whole quarter of the town, as it stands withering away by 
grains : had that face, to my fancy, in its dismal porch, and at its black 
blind windows, and flitting up and down its dreary stairs, and growing 
out of the darkness of its ghostly galleries. The history is written in 
the painting; wintten, in the dying girl's face, by Nature's own hand. 
And oh ! how in that one touch she puts to flight (instead of making 
kin) the puny world that claims to be related to her, in right of poor 
conventional forgeries ! " — Dickens. 

" Five days had been passed by Beatrice in the secret prisons of the 
Torre Savella, when, at an early hour in the morning, her advocate, 
Farinacci, entered her sad abode. With him appeared a young man of 
about twenty-five years of age, dressed in the fashion of a writer in the 
courts of justice of that day. Unheeded by Beatrice, he sat regarding 
her at a little distance with fixed attention. She had risen from her 
miserable pallet, but, unlike the wretched inmate of a dungeon, she 
seemed a being from a brighter sphere. Her eyes were of liquid softness, 
her forehead large and clear, her countenance of angelic purity, mys- 
teriously beautiful. Around her head a fold of white muslin had been 
carelessly wrapped, from whence in rich luxuriance fell her fair and 
waving hair. Profound sorrow imparted an air of touching sensibility 
to her lovely features. With all the eagerness of hope, she begged 
Farinacci to tell her frankly if his visit foreboded good, and assured him 
of her gratitude for the anxiety he evinced, to save her life and that of 
her family. 

" Farinacci conversed with her for some time, while at a distance sat 
his companion, sketching the features of Beatrice. Turning round, she 
observed this with displeasure and suiprise ; Farinacci explained that 
this seeming writer was the celebrated painter, Guido Reni, who, earn- 
estly desiring her picture, had entreated to be introduced into the 
prison for the purpose of obtaining so rich an acquisition. At first 
unwilling, but afterwards consenting, she tumed and said, ' Signer 
Guido, your renown might make me desirous of knowing you, but how 
•will you undervalue me in my present situation. From the fatality 
that surrounds me, you will judge me guilty. Perhaps my face m ill 
tell you I am not wicked ; it will show you, too, that i now languish 
in this prison, which I may quit, only to ascend the scaffold. Your 
great name, and my sad story, may make my portrait interesting, and,' 
she added, with touching simplicity, 'the picture will awaken com- 
passion if you write on one of its angles the word, innoccntel' The 
great artist set himself to work, and produced the picture now in the 
Palazzo Barberini, a picture that rivets the attention of every beholder, 
which, once seen, ever after hovers over the memory with an interest 
've most harrowing and mysterious." — From '■''Beatrice Cenci, Storia 



S. ANDREA A MONTE CAVALLO. 307 

del Secoh XVI., Raccontata dal D.A.A., Firenze^ Whiteside s Trans- 
lation. 

There is a pretty old-fiishioned garden belonging to this 
palace, at one corner of which — overhanging an old statue — 
is the celebrated Barbcrini Pine, often drawn by artists 
from the Via Sterrata at the back of the garden, where 
statue and pine combine well with the Church of S. Caio. 

At the back of the palace-court, behind the arched bridge 
leading to the garden, is — let into the wall — an inscription 
which formed part of the dedication of an arch erected to 
Claudius by the senate and people, in honour of the con- 
quest of Britain. The letters were inlaid with bronze. 
It was found near the Palazzo Sciarra, where the arch is 
supposed to have stood. 

Ascending to the summit of the hill, we find four ugly 
statues of river-gods, lying over the Quattro Fontatte, from 
which the street takes its name. 

On the left is the Palazzo Albani, recently restored by 
Queen Christina of Spain. 

" In one of its rooms is a very ancient painting of Jupiter and Gany- 
mede, in a very uncommon style, uniting considerable gi'andeur of 
conception, great force and decision, and a deep tone and colour which 
produce great effect. It is said to be Grecian." — Eaton's Rome. 

The opposite church, S. Carlo a Qtiattro Fontane, is worth 
observing from the fact that the whole building, church and 
convent, corresponds with one of the four piers supporting 
the cupola of St. Peter's. Here was formed the point of 
attack against the Quirinal Palace, November 16, 1848, 
which caused the flight of Pius IX., and the downfall of his 
government. From a window of this convent the shot was 
fired which killed Monsignor Palma, one of the pontifical 
secretaries, and a writer on ecclesiastical history — who had 
unfortunately exposed himself at one of the windows oppo- 
site. The church contains two pictures by Mignard re- 
lating to the history of S. Carlo. 

Turning down Via del Quirinale, on the left is S. Andrea 
a Monte Cavallo (on the supposed site of the temple of 
Quirinus), erected, as it is told by an inscription inside, 
by Camillo Pamphili, nephew of Innocent X., from designs 
of Bernini. It has a Corinthian facade and a projecting 
semicircular portico with Ionic columns. The interior is 
oval. It is exceedingly rich, being almost entirely lined with 



3o8 WALKS IN ROME, 

red marble streaked with white (SiciHan jasper), divided hy 
white marble pillars supporting a gilt cupola. The high 
altar — supposed to cover the body of St. Zeno — between 
really magnificent pillars, is surmounted by a fine picture, 
by Boj'gogfione, of the crucifixion of St. Andrew. Near this 
is the tomb, hy Festa, of Emmanuel IV., king of Sardinia, 
who abdicated his throne in 1802, to become a Jesuit 
monk in the adjoining convent, where he died in 18 18. 
On the right is the chapel of Santa Croce, with three pictures 
of the passion and death of Christ by Brandini ; and that 
of St. Francis Xavier, with three pictures by Baciccio, repre- 
senting the saint preaching, — baptizing an Indian queen, — 
and lying dead in the island of Sancian in China. On the 
left is the chapel of the Virgin, with pictures, by David, of 
the three great Jesuit saints — St. Ignatius Loyola, St. 
Francis Borgia, and St. Luigi Gonzaga — adoring the Virgin, 
and, by Gerai-d de la Niiit, of the Adoration of the Shep- 
herds and of the Magi ; and lastly the chapel of S. 
Stanislas Kostka, containing his shrine of gold and lapis- 
lazuli, under an exceedingly rich altar, which is adorned 
with a beautiful picture by Carlo Ma?'atfa, representing the 
saint receiving the Infant Jesus from the arms of his mother. 
At the sides of the chapel are two other pictures by 
Maratta, one of which represents S. Stanislas " bathing 
with water his breast inflamed with divine love," the 
other his receiving the host from the hands of an angel. 
These are the three principal incidents in the story of the 
young S. Stanislas, who belonged to a noble Polish family 
and abandoned the world to shut himself up here, saying, 
" I am not born for the good things of this world ; that 
which my heart desires is the good things of eternity." 

The adjoining Convent of the Noviciate of the Order of 
Jesus contains the room in which S. Stanislas Kostka 
died, at the age of eighteen, with his reclining statue by 
Le Gros, the body in white, his dress (that of a novice) m 
black, and the couch upon which he lies in yellow, marble. 
Behind his statue is a picture of a celestial vision which 
consoled him in his last moments. On the day of his 
death, November 13, the convent is thrown open, and 
mass is said without ceasing in this chamber, which is 
visited by thousands. 

**La petite chambre de S. Stanislas Kostka, est un de ces lieux ou la 



PIAZZA OF THE MONTE CAVALLO. 309 

priere nait spontanement dans le coeur, et s'en echappe comme par un 
cours naturel." — Veuillot, Parfum de Rome.* 

In the convent garden is shown the fountain where " the 
angels used to bathe the breast of S. Stanislas burning with 
the love of Christ." 

Passing the Benedictine convent, with a courtyard con- 
taining an old sarcophagus as a fountain, and a humble 
church decorated with rude frescoes of St. Benedict and 
Sta. Scholastica, we reach a small and popular church, rich 
in marbles, belonging to the Perpetiia Adoratrice del Divin 
Saa-mnento del Altare, founded by sister Maddalena of the 
Incarnation, who died 1829, and is buried on the right of 
the entrance. Here the low monotonous chant of the per- 
petual adoration may be constantly heard. 

The Piazza of the Monte Cavallo has in its centre the red 
granite obelisk (ninety-five feet high with its base) erected 
here by Antinori in 1781, for Pius VI. It was originally 
brought from Egypt by Claudius, a.d. 57, together with the 
obelisk now in front of Sta. Maria Maggiore, and they were 
both first placed at the entrance of the mausoleum of 
Augustus. At its base are the colossal statues found in the 
baths of Constantine, of the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux 
reining in their horses. These statues give a name to the 
district. Their bases bear the names of Phidias and Praxi- 
teles, and though their claim to be the work of such distin- 
guished sculptors is doubtful, they are certainly of Greek 
origin. Copies of these statues at Berlin have received the 
nicknames of Gehemmter Fortschritt, and Befdrderter Riick- 
schritt, — Progress checked and Retrogression encouraged. 

"At the time when the Mirabilia Romce were published, that is, 
about the thirteenth century, these statues were believed to represent 
the young philosophers, Praxiteles and Phidias, who came to Rome 
during the reign of Tiberius, and promised to tell him his most secret 
words and actions provided he would honour them with a monument. 
Having performed their promise, they obtained these statues, which 
represent them naked, because all human science was naked and open 
to their eyes. From this fable, wild and absurd as it is, we may never- 
theless draw the inference that the statues had been handed down from 
time immemorial as the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, though those 
artists had in the lapse of ages been metamorphosed into philosophers. 
May we not also assume the existence of a tradition that the statues 

* "Deus, qui inter caetera sapientise tuae miracula etiam in tenera aetate maturas 
sanctitatis gratiam contulisti ; da, qusesumus, ut beati Stanislai exempla, tempus, 
instanter operando, redimentes. in ailernam ingredi requjem festinemus."— C<?/^c/<2/ 
St. S. Kostka, Roman Vesper-Book. 



3IO WALICS IN ROME. 

were brought to Rome in the reign of Tiberius ? In the middle ages 
the group appears to have been accompanied by a statue of Medusa, 
sitting at their feet, and having before her a shell. According to the 
text of the Mirabilia, as given by Montfaucon in his Diarium Italicum, 
this figure represented the Church. The snakes which surrounded her 
typified the volumes of Scripture, which nobody could approach unless 
he had first been washed — that is, baptized — in the water of the shell. 
But the Prague MS. of the Mirabilia interprets the female figure to 
represent Science, and the serpents to typify the disputed questions with 
which she is concerned.' — Dyer s Hist, of the City of Rome. 

" Limitation du grand style de Phidias est visible dans plusieurs 
sculptures qu'il a inspirees, et surtout dans les colosses de Castor et 
Pollux, domptant des chevaux, qui ont fait donner a une partie du 
mont Quirinal le nom de Monte Cavallo. 

" II ne faut faire aucune attention aux inscriptions qui attribuent un 
des deux colosses a Phidias et I'autre a Praxitele, Praxitele dont le style 
n'a rien a faire ici ; son nom a ete inscrit sur la base de I'une des deux 
statues, comme Phedre le reprochait deja a des faussaires du temps 
d'Auguste, qui croyaient augmenter le merite d'un nouvel ouvrage en y 
mettant le nom de Praxitele. Quelle que soit I'epoque oil les colosses 
de Monte Cavallo ont ete executes, malgre quelques differences, on doit 
affirm er que les deux originaux etaient de la meme ecole, de I'ecole de 
Phidias." — Ampere, Hist. Romaine, iii. 252. 

" Chacun des. deux heros dompte d'une seule main un cheval fougueux 
qui se cabre. Ces formes colossales, cette lutte de I'homme avec les 
animaux, donnent, comme tons les ouvrages des anciens, une admirable 
idee de la puissance physique de la nature humaine." — Alad. de Stael. 

" Before me were the two Monte Cavallo statues, towering gigantically 
above the pygmies of the present day, and looking like Titans in the 
act of threatening heaven. Over my head the stars were just beginning 
to look out, and might have been taken for guardian angels keeping 
watch over the temples below. Behind, and on my left, were palaces ; 
on my right, gardens, and hills beyond, with the orange tints of sunset 
over them still glowing in the distance. Within a stone's throw of 
me, in the midst of objects thus glorious in themselves, and thus in 
harmony with each other, was stuck an unplaned post, on which glim- 
mered a paper lantern. Such is Rome.": — Guesses at Ti-uth. 

Close by is a fountain playing into a fine bason of 
Egyptian granite, brought hither by Pius VIL from the 
Forum, where it had long been used for watering cattle. 

On the left, is the Fa lace of the Co?istilta, built in 1730 
by Clement XII. (Corsini), from designs of Fuga. Before 
its gates some of the Guardia Nobile are always to be 
seen sunning themselves in a uniform so resplendent that 
it will scarcely be believed that the pay of this "noble 
guard " of the Pope amounts only to sB^ 6s. 3^. a month ! 

On the right, is the immense Fa/ace of the Quirinal, which 
also extends along one whole side of the street we have been 
pursuing. 



QUIRINAL PALACE. 311 

**That palace-building, ruin-destroying pope, Paul IV., began to 
erect the enormous palace on the Quirinal Hill ; and the prolongation 
of his labours, by a long series of successive pontiffs^ has made it one of 
the largest and ugliest buildings extant." — Eaton^s Rome. 

The chief, indeed almost the only, interest of this palace arises from 
its having been the favourite residence of Pius VII. (Chiaramonte). It 
was here that he was taken prisoner by the French. General Radet 
forced his way into the pope's room on the night of June 6, 1809, and, 
while excusing himself for being the messenger, hastily intunated to the 
pontiff, in the name of the emperor, that he must at once abdicate his 
temporal sovereignty. Pius absolutely refused, upon which he was forced 
to descend the staircase, and found a coach waiting at the entrance of 
the palace. Here the pope paused, his face streaming with tears, and, 
standing in the starlit piazza, solemnly extended his arms in benediction 
over his sleeping people. Then he entered the carriage, followed by 
Cardinal Pacca, and was hurried away to exile. . . . "Whirled 
away through the heat and dust of an Italian summer's day, without an 
attendant, without linen, without his spectacles — fevered and wearied, 
he never for a moment lost his serenity. Cardinal Pacca tells us, that 
when they had just started on this most dismal of journeys, the pope 
asked him if he had any money. The secretary of state replied that he 
had had no opportunity of providing himself. ' We then drew forth 
our purses,' continues the cardinal, ' and notwithstanding the state of 
affliction we were in at being thus torn away from Rome, and all that 
was dear to us, we could hardly compose our countenances, on finding 
the contents of each purse to consist — of the pope's, of a papetto {lod.), 
and of mine, of three grossi {Jj^d.). We had precisely thirty-five 
baiocchi between us The pope, extending his hand, showed his 
papetto to General Radet, saying, at the same time, ' Look here 
— this is all I possess.' " * . . . , Six years after. Napoleon 
was sent to St. Helena, and Pius VII. returned in triumph to 
Rome ! 

It was from this same palace that Pius IX. — who has 
never inhabited it since — made his escape to Gaeta during 
the revolution of 1848, when the siege of the Quirinal by 
the insurgents had succeeded in extorting the appointment 
of a democratic ministry. 

** On the afternoon of the 24th of November, the Due d'Harcourt 
had arrived at the Quirinal in his coach as ambassador of France, and 
craved an audience of the sovereign. The guards wondered that he 
stayed so long ; but they knew not that he sat reading the newspapers 
in the papal study, while the pope had retired to his bed-room to change 
his dress. Here his major-domo, Filippani, had laid out the black 
cassock and dress of an ordinary priest. The pontiff took off his purple 
stole and white pontifical robe, and came forth in the simple garb he 
had worn in his quiet youth. The Due d'Harcourt threw himself on his 
knees exclaiming, * Go forth, holy Father ; divine wisdom inspires this 
counsel, divine power will lead it to a happy end.' By secret passages 
and narrow staircases, Pius IX. and his trusty servant passed unseen to 

♦ Cardinal Wiseman's Life of Pius VII. 



3 1 2 WALKS I.V ROME. 

a little door, used only occasionally for the Swiss guards, and by which 
they were to leave the palace. They reached it, and bethought tlieni 
that the key had been forgotten ! Filippani hastened back to the papal 
apartment to fetch it ; and returning unquestioned to the wicket, found 
the pontiff on his knees, and quite absorbed in prayer. The wards were 
rusty, and the key turned with difficulty ; but the door was opened at 
lasi, and the holy fugitive and his servant quickly entered a poor 
hackney coach that was waiting for them outside. Here, again, they 
ran risk of being discovered through the thoughtless adherence to old 
etiquette of the other servant, who stood by the coach, and who, having 
let down the steps, knelt, as usual, before he shut the door. 

"The pope wore a dark great coat over his priest's capoch, a low- 
crowned round hat , and a broad brown woollen neckcloth outside his 
straight Roman collar. Filippani had on his usual loose cloak ; but 
under this he carried the three-cornered hat of the pope, a bundle of the 
most private and secret papers, the papal seals, the breviary, the cross- 
embroidered slippers, a small quantity of linen, and a little box full of 
gold medals stamped with the likeness of his Holiness. From the 
inside of the carriage, he directed the coachman to follow many winding 
and diverging streets, in the hope of misleading the spies, who were 
known to swarm at every corner. Beside the Church of SS. Pietro e 
Marcellino, in the deserted quarter beyond the Coliseum, they found 
the Bavarian minister. Count Spaur, waiting in his own private car- 
riage, and imagining every danger which could have detained them so 
long. The sovereign pressed the hand of his faithful Filippani, and 
entered the Count's carriage. Silently they drove on through the old 
gate of Rome, — Count vSpaur having there shown the passport of the 
Bavarian minister going to Naples on affairs of state. 

"Meanwhile the Due d'Harcourt grew tired of reading the news- 
papers in the pope's study; and when he thought that his Holiness 
must be far beyond the walls of Rome, he left the palace, and taking 
post-horses, hastened with all speed to overtake the fugitive on the road 
to Civita Vecchia, whither he believed him to be flying. As he left the 
study in the Quirinal, a prelate entered with a large bundle of eccle- 
siastical papers, on which, he said, he had to confer with the pope ; 
then his chamberlain went in to read to him his breviary, and the office 
of the day. The rooms were lighted up, and the supper taken in as 
usual ; and at length it was stated that his Floliness, feeling somewhat 
unwell, had retired to rest ; and his attendants, and the guard of honour, 
were dismissed for the night. It is true that a certain prelate, who 
chanced to see the little door by which the fugitive had escaped into the 
street left open, began to cry out, ' The pope has escaped ! the pope 
has escaped ! ' But Prince Gabrielli was beside him ; and, clapping 
his hand upon the mouth of the alarmist, silenced him in time, by 
whispering, 'Be quiet, Monsignore ; be quiet, or we shall be cut to 
pieces ! ' 

"Near La Riccia, the fugitives found Countess Spaur (who had 
arranged the whole plan of the escape) waiting with a coach and six 
horses — in which they pursued their journey to Gaeta, reaching the 
Neapolitan frontier between five and six in the morning. , The pope 
throughout carried with him the sacrament in the pyx which Pius the 
Seventh carried when he was taken prisoner to France, and which,, as 



QUIRINAL PALACE. 313 

if with prescience of what would happen, had been lately sent to him as 
a memorial by the Bishop of Avignon." — Beste. 

It is in the Quirinal Palace that the conclave now always 
meets for the election of the popes. 

** In the afternoon of the last day of the novendiali, as they are called, 
after the death of a pope, the cardinals assemble (at S. Sylvestro a 
Monte Cavallo), and walk in procession, accompanied by their concla- 
visti, a secretary, a chaplain, and a servant or two, to the great gate of 
the royal residence, in. which one will remain as master and supreme 
lord. Of course the hill is crowded by persons, lining the avenue kept 
open for the procession. Cardinals never before seen by them, or not 
for many years, pass before them ; eager eyes scan and measure them, 
and try to conjecture, from fancied omens in eye, in figure, or in 
expression, who will be shortly the sovereign of their fair city ; and, 
what is much more, the head of the Catholic Church, from the rising to 
the setting sun. They all enter equal over the threshold of that gate : 
they share together the supreme rule, spiritual and temporal : there is 
still embosomed in them all, the voice yet silent, that will soon sound 
from one tongue over all the world, and the dormant germ of that 
authority which will soon again be concentrated in one man alone. To- 
day they are all equal ; perhaps to-morrow one will sit enthroned, and 
all the rest will kiss his feet ; one will be sovereign, and others his sub- 
jects ; one the shepherd, and the others his flock. 

" From the Quirinal Palace stretches out, the length of a whole street, 
an immense wing, divided in its two upper floors into a great number 
of small but complete suites of apartments, occupied permanently, or 
occasionally, by persons attached to the Court. During conclave these 
are allotted, literally so, to the cardinals, each of whom lives apart with 
his own attendants. His food is brought daily from his own house, and 
is overhauled, and delivered to him in the shape of ' broken victuals,' by 
the watchful guardians of the herns and lattices, through which alone 
anything, even conversation, can penetrate into the seclusion of that 
sacred retreat For a few hours, the first evening, the doors are left open, 
aiid the nobility, the diplomatic body, and, in fact, all presentable persons, 
may roam from cell to cell, paying a brief compliment to its occupant, 
perhaps speaking the same good wishes to fifty, which they know can 
only be accomplished in one. _ After that, all is closed ; a wicket is left 
accessible for any cardinal to enter, who is not yet arrived ; but every 
aperture is jealously guarded by faithful janitors, judges and prelates of 
various tribunals, who relieve one another. Every letter even is opened 
and read, that no communications may be held with the outer world. 
The very street on which the wing of the conclave looks is barricaded 
and guarded by a picquet at each end ; and as, fortunately, opposite there 
are no private residences, and all the buildings have access from the 
back, no inconvenience is thereby created. . . . In the mean time, 
within, and unseen from without, fe^-vd opus. 

" Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel belonging to the palace, 
included in the enclosure, and there, on tickets so arranged that the 
voter's name cannot be seen, write the name of him for whom they give 
their suffrage. These papers are examined in their presence, and if the 



314 WALKS IN ROME. 

number of votes given to any one do not constitute the majority, they 
are burnt in such a manner that the smoke, issuing through a flue, is 
visible to the crowd usually assembled in the square outside. Some day, 
instead of this usual signal to disperse, the sound of pick and hammer is 
heard, a small opening is seen in the wall which had temporarily blocked 
up the great window over the palace gateway. At last the masons of 
the conclave have opened a i-ude door, through which steps out on the 
balcony the first Cardinal Deacon, and proclaims to the many, or to the 
few, who may happen to be in waiting, that they again possess a sove- 
reign and a pontiff." — Cardmal Wisemaji. 

The palace is shown from 12 a.m. to 4 p.m., on presentation 
of a ticket, which may easily be obtained through a banker. 
It is stripped of all historical memorials, and contains very 
few fine pictures, so is little worth visitmg ; the visitor is 
hurried through the rooms by a cross custode. 

On the landing of the principal staircase, in a bad light, 
is a very important fresco by Melozzo da Forli, a rare master 
of the Paduan school.* 

*' On the vaulted ceiling of a chapel in the Church of the SS. Apostoli 
at Rome, Melozzo executed a work (1472) which, in those times, can 
have admitted of comparison with few. When the chapel was rebuilt 
in the eighteenth century some fragments were saved. That compre- 
hending the Creator between angels was removed to a staircase in the 
Quirinal palace, while single figures of angels were placed in the sacristy 
of St. Peter's. These detached portions suffice to show a beauty and 
fulness of form, and a combination of earthly and spiritual grandeur, 
comparable in their way to the noblest productions of Titian, although 
in mode of execution rather recalling Coreggio. Here, as in the cupola 
frescoes of Coieggio himself, half a century later, Ave trace that constant 
effort at true perspective of the figure, hardly in character, perhaps, with 
high ecclesiastical art ; the drapery, also, is of a somewhat formless 
description ; but the grandeur of the principal figure, the grace and 
freshness of the little adoring cherubs, and the elevated beauty of the 
angels are expressed with an easy naivete, to which only the best works 
of Mantegna and Signorelli can compare." — Kicgler. 

Passing through a great hall, one hundred and ninety 
feet long, we are shown a number of rooms fitted up by 
Pius VII. and Gregory XVI. for the papal summer resi- 
dence. They contain few objects of interest. In one 
chamber is a Last Supper by Baroccio ; — in the next a 
fine tapestry representing the marriage of Louis XIV. 
The following rooms contain some good Gobelin tapes- 
tries. 

Several apartments have mosaic pavements, brought 

* By this same master is the iiUeicbting fresco of Sixtus IV. and his nephews — noyf 
In the VatFcan gallery. 



QUIRINAL PALACE. 315 

hither from pagan edifices. The chamber is shown in 
which Pius VII. died, — the bed has been changed. In the 
next room — an audience chamber — he was taken prisoner. 
Here is a curious ancient pietra-dura of the Annunciation, 
— the ceihng is painted by Overbeck. In one of the 
following rooms are some pictures, including — • 

S. Giorgio: Pordenone. 

Marriage of S. Catherine : Battoni. 

St. Peter and St. Paul : Fra Bartolomeo. 
" The two standing figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, as large as life, 
were executed during a short residence in Rome. The first was com- 
pleted by Raphael after Fra Bartolomeo's departure." — Kuglej'. 

The room which is decorated with a fine modern tapestry 
of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, has a plaster frieze, being 
the original cast of the Triumph of Alexander the Great, 
modelled for Napoleon by Thorwaldsen. One of the last 
rooms shown is a kind of picture gallery. Among the best 
works here are : — 

Saul and David : Gtcercino. 
Ecce Homo : Domenichino. 
St. Jerome : Spagnoletto. 
The Flight into Egypt : Baroccio. 

Here also is a worthless picture of the Battle of Mentana, 
presented to Pius IX. by the English Catholic ladies. 

The Private Chapel of the FoJ>e, opening from this 
gallery, contains a magnificent picture of the Annuncia- 
tion by Guido, and frescoes of the life of the Virgin by 
Albani. The great hall of the Consistory, a bare room 
with benches, has a fresco of the Virgin and Child by Carlo 
Maratta, over an altar. 

The Gardens of the Qtdrinal can be visited with an order 
from 8 to 12 a.m. They are in the stifi" style of box hedges 
and clipped avenues, which seems to belong especially 
to Rome, and which we know to have been popular here 
even in imperial times. PHny, in his account of his Tus- 
culan villa, describes his gardens decorated with " figures 
of different animals, cut in box : evergreens clipped into 
a thousand different shapes ; sometimes into letters form- 
ing different names ; walls and hedges of cut box, and 
trees twisted into a variety of forms." But the Quirinal 
gardens are also worth visiting, on account of the many 
pretty glimpses they afford of St. Peter's and other distant 

Y 



3i6 WALKS IN ROME. 

buildings, and the oddity of some of the devices — an orgaii 
played by water, &c. The Casino, built by Fuga, has fres- 
coes by Orizv7iti, Pompeo Battoiii, and Faiinmi. 

If we turn to the left on issuing from the palace, we 
reach — on the left — the entrance to the courtyard of the vast 
Palazzo Rospigliosi, built by Flaminio Ponzio, in 1603, for 
Cardinal Scipio Borghese, on a portion of the site of the 
Baths of Constantine. It was inhabited by Cardinal Benti- 
voglio, and sold by him to Cardinal Mazarin, who enlarged 
it from designs of Carlo Maderno. From his time to 1704 
it was inhabited by French ambassadors, and it then passed 
to the Rospigliosi family. The present Prince Rospigliosi 
inhabits the first floor, his brother, Prince Pallavicini, the 
second. 

The palace itself (well known from its hospitalities) is not 
shown, but the Casino is open on Wednesdays and Satur- 
days. It is situated at the end of a very small but pretty 
garden planted with magnolias, and consists of three cham- 
bers. On the roof of the central room is the famous Aurora 
of Guido. 

" Guide's Aurora is the very type of haste and impetus ; for surely 
no man ever imagined such hurry and tumult, such sounding and clash- 
ing. Painters maintain that it is lighted from two sides, — they have my 
full permission to light theirs from three if it will improve them, but the 
difference Hes elsewhere." — Meiidelssohii' s Letters, p. 91. 

"This is the noblest work of Guido. It is embodied poetry. The 
Hours, that hand in hand encircle the car of Phoebus, advance with 
rapid pace. The paler, milder forms of those gentle sisters who rule 
over declining day, and the glowing glance of those who bask in the 
meridian blaze, resplendent in the hues of heaven, — are of no mortal 
grace and beauty ; but they are eclipsed by Aurora herself, who sails on 
the golden clouds before them, shedding ' showers of shadowing roses ' 
on the rejoicing earth ; her celestial presence diffusing gladness, and 
light, and beauty around. Above the heads of the heavenly coursers, 
hovers the morning star, in the form of a youthful cherub, bearing his 
flaming torch. Nothing is more admirable in this beautiful composition 
than the motion given to the whole. The smooth and rapid step of the 
circling Hours as they tread on the fleecy clouds ; the fiery steeds ; the 
whirling wheels of the car ; the torch of Lucifer, blown back by the 
velocity of his advance ; and the form of Aurora, borne through the 
ambient air, till you almost fear she should float from your sight." — 
Eato7i' s Rome. 

"The work of Guido is more poetic tlian that of Guercino, and 
luminous, and soft, and harmonious. Cupid, Aurora, Phoebus, form a 
climax of beauty, and the Hours seem as light as the clouds on which 
they dance." — Forsyth. 

Lanzi points out that Guido always took the Venus de Medici and 



PALAZZO ROSPIGLIOSL—COLONXA GARDENS. 317 

the Niobe as his favourite models, and that there is scarcely one of his 
large pictures in which the Niobe or one of her sons is not introduced, 
yet with such dexterity, that the theft is scarcely perceptible. 

The frescoes of the frieze are by Tempesta ; the land- 
scapes by Paul Brill. In the hall are busts, statues, and 
a bronze horse found in the ruins of the Baths. 

There is a small collection of pictures — the only work 
of real importance being the beautiful Daniele di Volterra 
of our Saviour bearing his cross, in the room on the left. 
In the same room are two large pictures, David triumph- 
ing with the head of Goliath, Domenichino ; and Perseus 
rescuing Andromeda, Guido. In the room on the right 
are, Adam gathering fig-leaves for Eve, in a Paradise 
which is crowded with animals like a menagerie, Domeni- 
chino ; and Samson pulling down the pillars upon the 
Philistines, Ludovico Caracci. 

A second small garden belonging to this palace is well 
worth seeing in May from the wealth of camellias, azaleas, 
and roses, with which it is filled. 

Opposite the Rospigliosi Palace, by ringing at a gate in 
the wall, we gain admission to the Colo7ina Gardens (con- 
nected with the palace in the Piazza SS. Apostoli, by a 
series of bridges across the intervening street). Here, on 
a lofty terrace which has a fine view towards the Capitol, and 
overshadowed by grand cypresses, are the colossal remains 
of the Temple of the Sun (huge fragments of cornice) built 
by Aurehan (a.d. 270 — 75). At the other end of the terrace, 
looking down through two barns into a kind of pit, we 
can see some remains of the Baths of Constantine — built 
A.D. 326 — and of the great staircase which led up to them 
from the valley below. The portico of these baths re- 
mained erect till the time of Clement XII. (1730 — 40), and 
w^as adorned with four marble statues, of which two — those 
of the two Constantines — may now be seen on the terrace 
of the Capitol. 

Beneath the magnificent cypress-trees on the slope of 
the hill are several fine sarcophagi. Only the stem is 
preserved of the grand historical pine-tree, which was 
planted on the day on which Cola di Rienzi died, and 
which was one of the great ornaments of the city till 1848, 
when it was broken in a storm. 

Just beyond the end of the garden, are the great Convent 



3 1 S JVJ LKS IN ROME. 

and Church of S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo — belonging to 
the Missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul — in which the Car- 
dinals meet before going in procession to the Conclave. 
It contains a few rather good pictures. The cupola of the 
second chapel has frescoes by Domeiiichino., of David 
dancing before the Ark, — the Queen of Sheba and Solomon, 
• — Judith with the head of Holofernes, — and Esther fainting 
before Ahasuerus. These are considered by Lanzi as some 
of the finest frescoes of the master. In the left transept 
is a chapel containing a picture of the Assumption, painted 
on slate, considered the masterpiece of Scipione Gaetani. 
The last chapel but one on the left has a ceiling by Cav, 
d'Arpi?io, and frescoes on the walls by Polidoro da Cara- 
vaggio. The picture over the altar, representing St. 
Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, is by Mariotfo Alberti- 
7ieUi. Cardinal Bentivoglio — who wrote the history of the 
wars in Flanders, and lived in the RospigHosi Palace — is 
buried here. 

We now reach the height of Maganaopoli, from which 
the isthmus which joined the Quirinal to the Capitoline 
was cut away by Trajan. Here is a cross-ways. On the 
right is a descent to the Forum, of Trajan, at the side of 
which is the villa of Cardinal Antonelli, and beyond it, the 
handsome modern palace of Count Trapani, cousin to the 
King of Naples. 

Opposite, is the Church of Sta. Cater ina di Siena, pos- 
sessing some frescoes attributed, on doubtful grounds, to 
the rare master Ti??ioteo della Vite. Adjoining, is a large 
convent, enclosed within the precincts of which is the tall 
brick mediaeval tower, sometimes called the Tower of Nero, 
but generally known as the Torre dclle Mi/izie, i.e. the 
Roman Militia. It was erected by the sons of Peter Alexius, 
a baron attached to the parly of the Senator Pandolfo de 
Suburra. The lower part is said to have been built in 1210, 
the upper in 1294 and 1330. 

"People pass through two regular courses of study at Rome, — the 
first in learning, and the second in unlearning. 

" ' This is the tower of Nero, from which he saw the city in flames, — 
and this is the temple of Concord, — and this is the temple of Castor and 
Pollux, — and this is the temple of Vesta,— and these are the baths of 
Paulus-yEmilius,' — and so on, says yOur lacquey. 

•' ' This is not the t< wer of Nero, — nor that the temple of Castor and 



SS. DOM EX ICO E SIS TO. 319 

Pollux. — nor the -other the temple of Concord, — nor are any of these 
things what they are called,' says your antiquary." — Ea toil's Rome. 

The Convent of Sta. Caterina was built by the celebrated 
Vittoria Colonna, who requested the advice of Michael 
Angelo on the subject, and was told that she had better 
make the ancient " Torre " into ,a belfry. A very curious 
account of the interview in which this subject was dis- 
cussed, and which took place in the Church of S. Silvestro 
a Monte Cavallo, is left us in the memoirs of Francesco 
d'Olanda, a Portuguese painter, who was himself present at 
the conversation. 

Near this point are two other fine mediaeval towers. One 
is to the right of the descent to the Forum of Trajan, being 
that of the Colonnas, now called Tor di Babele, ornamented 
with three beautiful fragments of sculptured frieze, one of 
them bearing the device of the Colonna, a crowned column 
rising from a wreath. The other tower, immediately facing 
us, is called Toi-re del Grillo, from the ancient family of that 
name. 

Opposite Sta. Caterina is the handsome Church of SS. 
Domenico e Sisto, approached by a good double twisted 
staircase. Over the second altar on the left is a picture 
of the marriage of St. Catherine by Allegrani., and, on the 
anniversary of her (visionary) marriage (July 19), the dried 
hand of the saint is exhibited here to the unspeakable 
comfort of the faithful. 

Turning by this church into the Via Maganaopoli 
(formerly Baganaopoli, a corruption of Balnea Pauli — Baths 
of Emilius Paulus), we pass on the left the Palazzo Aldo- 
brandini, with a bright pleasant-looking court and handsome 
fountain. The present Prince Aldobrandini is brother of 
Prince Borghese. Of this family was S. Pietro Aldo- 
brandini, generally known as S. Pietro Igneo, who was 
canonized because, in 1067, he walked unhurt, crucifix in 
hand, through a burning fiery furnace ten feet long before 
the church door of Settimo, near Florence, to prove an 
accusation of simony which he had brought against Pietro 
di Pavia, bishop of that city. 

In the Via di Mazzarini, in the hollow between the 
Quirinal and Viminal, is the Cofivent of Sta. Agafa in 
Suburra, through the courtyard of which we enter the 



320 WALKS IX ROME. 

Church of Sta. Agata del Goti. A tradition declares that 
this (Hke S. Sabba on the Aventine) is on the site of a 
house of Sta. Silvia, mother of St. Gregory the Great, who 
consecrated the church after it had been plundered by the 
Goths, and dedicated it to Sta. Agata. It was rebuilt by 
Ricimer, the king-maker, in a.d. 472. Twelve ancient 
granite columns and a handsome opus-alexandrinum pave- 
ment are its only signs of antiquity. The church now 
belongs to the Irish Seminary. In the left aisle is the 
monument of Daniel O'Connell, with bas-reliefs by Benzoni, 
inscribed :— 

"This monument contains the heart of O'Connell, who dying at 
Genoa on his way to the Eternal City, bequeathed his soul to God, his 
body to Ireland, and his heart to Rome. He is represented at the bar 
of the British House of Commons in MDCCCXXHI., when he refused 
to take the anti-catholic declaration, in these remarkable words — ' I at 
once reject this declaration ; part of it I believe to be untrue, and the 
rest I know to be false.' He was born vi. Aug. MDCCLXXVI., and 
died XV. May, MDCCCXLVHI. Erected by Charles Bianconi, the 
faithful friend of the immortal liberator, and of Ireland the land of his 
adoption." 

At the end of the left aisle is a chapel, which Cardinal 
Antonelli (who has his palace near this) decorated, 1863, 
with frescoes and arabesques as a burial-place for his 
family. In the opposite chapel is a gilt figure of Sta. Agata 
carrying her breasts — showing the manner in which she 
suffered. 

"Agatha was a maiden of Catania, in Sicily, whither Decius the 
emperor sent Quintianus as governor. He, inflamed by the beauty of 
Agatha, tempted her with rich gifts and promises, but she repulsed 
him with disdain. Then Quintianus ordered her to be bound and 
beaten with rods, and sent two of his slaves to tear her bosom with iron 
shears, and as her blood flowed forth, she said to him, ' O thou cruel 
tyrant ! art thou not ashamed to treat me thus— hast thou not thyself 
been fed at thy mother's breasts ? ' Thus only did she murmur. And 
in the night a venerable man came to her, bearing a vase of ointment, 
and before him walked a youth bearing a torch. It was the holy 
apostle Peter, and the youth was an angel ; but Agatha knew it not, 
though such a glorious light filled the prison, that the guards fled in 
terror. . . . Then St. Peter made himself known and ministered to her, 
restoring with heavenly balm her wounded breasts. 

" Quintianus, infuriated, demanded who had healed her. She re- 
])lied, ' He whom I confess and adore with heart and lips, he hath sent 
his apostle who hath healed me.' Then Qumtianus causetl her to be 
thrown bound upon a great fire, but instantly an earthquake arose, and 
tlie people in terror cried, ' This visitation is sent because of the suffer- 
ings of the maiden Agatha.' So he caused her to be taken from the 



STA. AG ATA DEI GOTI. 321 

fire, and carried back to prison, where she prayed aloud that having 
now proved her faith, she might be freed from pain and see the glory of 
God ; — and her prayer was answered and her spirit instantly departed 
into eternal glory, Feb. 5, a.d. 251." — From the '' Legende delle SS. 
Verghiiy 

Agatha (patroness of Catania) is one of the saints 
most reverenced by the Roman people. On the 5th of 
February her vespers are sung here, which contain the 
antiphons : — 

' ' Who art thou that art come to heal my wounds ? — I am an apostle 
of Christ, doubt not concerning me, my daughter. 

"Medicine for the body have 1 never used; but I have the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who with his word alone restoreth all things. 

"I render thanks to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for that thou hast 
been mindful of me, and hast sent thine apostle to heal my wounds. 

"I bless thee, O Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, because tlirough 
thine apostle thou hast restored my breasts to me. 

" Him who hath vouchsafed to heal me of every wound, and to re- 
store to me my breasts, him do I invoke, even the living God. 
****** 

"Blessed Agatha, standing in her prison, stretched forth her hands 
and prayed unto the Lord, saying, ' O Lord Jesus Christ, my good 
master, I thank thee because thou hast given me strength to overcome 
the tortures of the executioners ; and now, Lord, speak the word, that I 
may depart hence to thy glory which fadeth not away." 

The tomb of John Lascaris (a refugee from Con- 
stantinople when taken by the Turks) has — in Greek — the 
inscription : — • 

*' Lascaris lies here in a foreign grave; but, strangei", that does not 
disturb him, rather does he rejoice ; yet he is not without sorrow, as a 
Grecian, that his fatherland will not bestow upon him the freedom of a 
grave." 

Passing the great Convent of S. Bernardino Senensis, 
we reach the Via dei Serpenti, interesting as occupying 
the supposed site of the Vallis Quirinalis, where Julius 
Proculus, returning from Alba Longa, encountered the 
ghost of Romulus : 

" Sed Proculus Longa veniebat Julius Alba ; 
Lunaque fulgebat ; nee facis usus erat : 
Cum sabito motu nubes crepuere sinistrae : 
Retulit ille gradus, horrueruntque comae. 
Pulcher, et humano major, trabeaque decorus, 
Romulus in media visus adesse via." 

Ovid, Fast. ii. 498. 

Turning to the right down the Via dei Seq^enti, we 



322 WALKS IN ROME. 

reach the Piazza Sta. Maria in Monti, containing a fountain, 
and a church dedicated to SS. Sergius and Bacchus, two 
martyrs who suffered under Maximian at Rasapha in Syria. 

One side of this piazza is occupied by the CJmrch of 
Sta. Maria in Monti^ in which is deposited a figure of the 
beggar Labre (canonized by Pius IX. in i860), dressed in 
the gown of a mendicant-pilgrim, which he wore when 
hving. Over the altar is a picture of him in the Coliseum, 
distributing to his fellow-beggars the alms w^hich he had 
obtained. His fete is observ'ed here on April 16. (At 
No. 3 Via dei Serpenti, one may \isit the chamber in which 
Labre died — and in the Via dei Crociferi, near the fountain 
of Trevi, a chapel containing many of his relics, — the 
bed on which he died, the crucifix which he wore in his 
bosom, &c.) 

*'Benoit Joseph Labre naquit en 1748 dans le diocese de Boulogne 
(France) de parents Chretiens et jouissant d'une modeste aisance. D'une 
piete vive et tendre, il voukit d'abord se faire religieux ; mais sa sante 
ne put resister, ni aux regies des Chartreux, ni a celles des Trappistes, 
chez lesquels il entra successivement. // fiit alors sollicite iiith-ieiire- 
mejit, est il dit dans la notice sur sa vie, de meiier tuie vie de peniteiice et 
de charite an milieic du siecle. Pendant sept annees, il parcourut en 
pelerin-mendiant, les sanctuaires de la Vierge les plus veneres de toute 
I'Europe; on a calcule qu'il fit, a pied, pkis de cinq mille lieues, pen- 
dant ces sept annees. 

"En 1777, il revint en Italic, pour ne plus en sortir. II habitait 
Rome, faisant seulement une fois chaque annee, le pelerinage de Lorete. 
II passait une grande partie de ses journees dans les eglises, mendiait, 
et faisait des oeuvres de charite. II couchait quelquefois sous le portique 
des eglises, et le plus souvent au Colysee derriere la petite chapelle de 
la cinquieme station du chemin de la croix. L'eglise qu'il frequentait le 
plus, etait celle de Ste. Marie des Monts ; le 16 Avril, 1783, apres y 
avoir prie fort longtemps, en sortant, il tomba, comuie evanoui, sur 
les marches du peristyle de l'eglise. On le transporta dans une maison 
voisine, oil il mourut le soir." — Une Annee a Rome. 

Almost opposite this church, a narrow alley, which ap- 
pears to be a cul-de-sac ending in a picture of the 
Crucifixion, is in reality the approach to the carefully 
concealed Convent of the Farnesiajii Nuns, generally kno^^•n 
as the Sepolte Vive. The only means of communicating 
with them is by rapping on a barrel which projects from 
a wall on a platform above the roofs of the houses, — when 
a muffled voice is heard from the interior, — and if }'our 
references are satisfactory, the barrel turns round and 
eventually discloses a key by \\hich the initiated can admit 



CONVENT OF THE SEPOLTE VIVE. 323 

themselves to a small chamber in the interior of the 
convent. Over its door is an inscription, bidding those 
who enter that chamber to leave all worldly thoughts behind 
them. Round the walls are inscribed, — " Qui non diligit, 
manet in morti." — " Militia est vita hominis super terram." 
— " Alter alterius onera portate " ; and, on the other side, 
opposite the door, 

" Vi esorto a rimirar 

La vita del mondo 
Nella guisa che la mira 

Un moribondo." 

In one of the walls is an opening with a double grille, be- 
yond which is a metal plate, pierced with holes like the rose 
of a watering-pot. It is beyond this grille and behind this 
plate, that the abbess of the Sepolte Vive receives her 
visitors, but she is even then veiled from head to foot in 
heavy folds of thick bure. Gregory XVI,, who of course 
could penetrate within the convent and who wished to try 
her, said, " Sorella mia, levate il velo." "No, mio padre," 
she replied, " E vietato dalla nostra regola.'- 

The nuns of the Sepolte Vive are never seen again after 
they once assume the black veil, though they are allowed 
double the ordinary noviciate. They never hear anything 
of the outer world, even of the deaths of their nearest 
relations. Daily, they are said to dig their own graves 
and lie down in them, and their remaining hours are occu- 
pied in perpetual and monotonous adoration of the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

Returning as far as the Via Pane e Perna (a continuation 
of the Via Maganaopoli) we ascend the slope of the Viminal 
Hill, now with difficulty to be distinguished from the 
Quirinal. It derives its name from viinma, osiers, and was 
once probably covered with woods, since a temple of Syl- 
vanus or Pan was one of several which adorned its principal 
street — the Vicus Longus— the site of which is now marked 
by the countrified lane called Via S. Vitale. This end 
of the hill is crowned by the Church of S. Lorenzo Pane e 
Perna, built on the site of the martyrdom of the deacon St. 
Laurence, who suffered under Claudius II. , in a.d. 264, for 
refusing to give up the goods of the church. Over the 
altar is a huge fresco, representing the saint extended upon 
a red-hot gridiron, and below — entered from the exterior of 



324 WALK'S IN ROME. 

the church — a crypt is shown as the scene of his cruel 
sufferings.* 

" Blessed Laurentius, as he lay stretched and burning on the gridiron, 
said to the impious tyrant, ' The meat is done, make haste hither and 
eat. As for the treasures of the Church which you seek, the hands 
of the poor have carried them to a heavenly treasury.'" — Antiphon of 
St. Laurence. 

The funeral of St. Bridget of Sweden took place in this 
church, July 1373, but after resting here for a year, her 
body was removed by her son to the monastery of Wastein 
in Sweden. 

Under the second altar on the right are shown the relics 
of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian, " two holy brothers, who 
departed from Rome with St. Denis to preach the Gospel in 
France, where, after the example of St. Paul, they laboured 
with their hands, being by trade shoemakers. And these 
good saints made shoes for the poor without fee or reward 
(for which the angels supplied them with leather), until, 
denounced as Christians, they suffered martyrdom at Sois- 
sons, being, after many tortures, beheaded by the sword 
(a.d. 300)." t The festival of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian 
is held on October 25, the anniversary of the battle of 
Agincourt. 

" And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 
From this day to the ending of the world, 
But we hi it shall be remembered." 

Shakespeare, Henry V. 

Throughout the middle ages the statues of Posidippus 
and Menander, now in the gallery of statues at the Vatican, 
were kissed and worshipped in this church under the im- 
pression that they represented saints (see Ch. XV.). They 
were found on this site, which was once occupied by the 
baths of Olympias, daughter-in-law of Constantine. 

The strange name of the church. Pane e Perna, is sup- 
posed to have had its origin in a dole of bread and ham 
once given at the door of the adjacent convent. In the 
garden belonging to the convent is a mediaeval house of 
c. 1200. The campanile is of 1450, 

The small neighbouring Church of S. Lorenzo in Fonte 
covers the site of the prison of St. Lawrence, and a foun- 

• The body of this saint is said to repose at S. Lorenzo fuori Mura ; his head is at 
the Quirinal ; at S. Lorenzo in Luciiia his gridiron and chains are shown. 
t Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art. 



STA. PUDENTIAXA. 325 

tain is shown there as that in which he baptized Vicus 
Patricias and his daughter LuciUa, whom he miraculously 
raised from the dead. 

Descending the hill below the church^n the valley 
between the Esquiline and Viminal — we reach at the corner 
of the street a spot of preeminent historical interest, as that 
where Servius TuUius was killed, and w4iere Tullia (b.c. 535) 
drove in her chariot over the dead body of her father. The 
Vicus Urbius by which the old king had reached the spot 
is now represented by the Via Urbana ; the Vicus Cyprius, 
by which he was about to ascend to the palace on the hill 
Cispius, by the Via di Sta. Maria Maggiore. 

" Servius-Tullius, apres avoir pris le chemiii raccourci qui partait du 
pied de la Velia et allait du cote des Cannes, atteignit le Vicus-Cyprius 
(Via Urbana). 

" Parvenu a I'extremite du Vicus-Cyprius, le roi fut atteint et assas- 
sine par les gens de Tarquin aupres d'un temple de Diane. 

"C'est arrives en cet endroit, au moment de tourner a droite et de 
gagner, en remontant le Vicus- Virbius, le Cispius, ou habitait son pere, 
que les chevaux s'arreterent ; que Tullie, poussee par I'impatience 
fievreuse de I'ambition, et n'ayant plus que quelques pas a faire pour 
arriver au terme, avertie par le cocher que le cadavre de son pere etait 
la gisant, s'ecria : ' Eh bien, pousse le char en avant.' 

"Le meurtre s'est accompli au pied du Viminal, a I'extremite du 
Vicus-Cyprius, la ou fut depuis le Vicus-Sceleratus, la rue Funeste. 

" Le lieu oil la tradition pla9ait cette tragique aventure ne pent etre sur 
I'Esquilin : mais necessairernent au pied de cette colline et du Viminal, 
puisque, parvenu a Fextremite du Vicus-Cyprius, le cocher allait tourner 
a droite et remonter pour gravir I'Esquilin. II ne faut done pas chercher, 
comme Nibby, la rue Scelerate sur une des pentes, ou, comme Canina et 
M. Dyer, sur le sommet de I'Esquilin, d'ou Ton ne pouvait monter sur 
I'Esquilin. 

"Tullie n'allait pas sur I'Oppius (San-Pietro in Vincoli), dans la 
demeure de son mari, mais sur le Cispius, dans la demeure de son pere. 
C'etait de la demeure royale qu'elle allait prendre possession pour le 
nouveau roi. 

****** 

" Je n'oublierai jamais le soir ou, apres avoir longtemps cherche le 
lieu qui vit la mort de Servius et le crime de Tullie, tout-a-coup je 
decouvris clairement que j'y etais arrive, et m'arretant plein d'horreur, 
comme le cocher de la parricide, plongeant dans 1' ombre un regard qui, 
malgre moi, y cherchait le cadavre du vieux roi, je me dis : ' C'etait la ! ' " 

Ampere, Hist. Rom. ii. 153. 

Turning to the left, at the foot of the Esquiline, we find 
the interesting Church of Sta. Pudoitiaiia, supposed to be 
the most ancient of all the Roman churches (" omnium 
ecclesiarum urbis vetustissima"). Cardinal ^^'iseman, who 



326 WALKS IN ROME. 

took his title from this church, considers it was the prin- 
cipal place of worship in Rome after apostolic times, being 
founded on the site of the house where St. Paul lodged, 
A.D. 41 to 50, with the senator Pudens, whose family 
were his first converts, and who is said to have himself 
suffered martyrdom under Nero. On this ancient place of 
worship an oratory was engrafted by Pius I. (c. a.d. 145), in 
memory of the younger daughter of Pudens, Pudentiana, 
perhaps at the request of her sister Prassede, who is beUeved 
to have survived till that time. In very early times two 
small churches existed here, kno^vn as " Titulus Pudentis " 
and " Titulus Pastoris," the latter in memory of a brother 
of Pius I. 

The church, which has been successively altered by 
Adrian I. in the eighth century, by Gregory VII., and by 
Innocent II., was finally modernised by Cardinal Caetani 
in 1597. Little remains of ancient external work except the 
graceful brick campanile {c. 1130) with triple arcades of 
open arches on every side separated by bands of terra-cotta 
moulding,— and the door adorned with low reliefs of the 
Lamb bearing a cross, and of Sta, Prassede and Sta. Puden- 
tiana with the vases in which they collected the blood of 
the martyrs, and two other figures, probably St. Pudens and 
St. Pastor. 

The chapel on the left of the tribune, which is regarded 
as the " Titulus Pudentis," has an old mosaic pavement, said 
to have belonged to the house of Pudens. Here is a bas- 
relief by Giacomo della Porta, representing our Saviour 
delivering the keys to St. Peter ; and here is preserved part 
of the altar at which St. Peter is said to have celebrated 
mass (the rest is at the Lateran), and which was used by all 
the early popes till the time of Sylvester. Among early 
Christian inscriptions let into the walls, is one to a Cornelia, 
of the family of the Pudentiani, with a rude portrait. 

Opening from the left aisle is the chapel of the Caetani 
family, with tombs of the seventeenth century. Over the 
altar is a bas-relief of the Adoration of the INIagi, by Paolo 
Olivier i. On each side are fine columns of Lunachella 
marble. Over the entrance from the nave are ancient 
mosaics, — of the Evangelists and of Sta. Pudentiana collect- 
ing the blood of the martyrs. Beneath, is a gloomy and 



STA. PUDENTIANA. 327 

neglected vault, in which all the sarcophagi and coffins of 
the dead Caetani are shown by torchlight. 

In the tribune are magnificent mosaics, ascribed by some 
to the eighth, by others to the fourth century, and con- 
sidered by De Rossi, '^ as the best of all ancient Christian 
mosaics. 

'* In conception and treatment this -work is indeed classic : seated 
on a rich throne in the centre, is the Saviour with one arm extended, 
and in the other hand holding a book open at the words, Consej-vator 
EcclesicB Pudentia7i(€ ; laterally stand SvS. Praxedis and Pudentiana with 
leafy crowns in their hands ; and at a lower level, but more in front, 
SS. Peter and Paul with eight other male figures, all in the amply- 
flowing costume of ancient Romans ; while in the background are seen, 
beyond a portico with arcades, various stately buildings, one a rotunda, 
another a parallelogram with a gable-headed front, recognizable as a 
baptistery and basilica, here, we may believe, in authentic copy from 
the earliest types of the period of the first Christian emperors. Above 
the group, and hovering in the air, a large cross, studded with gems, 
surmounts the head of our Saviour, between the four symbols of the 
Evangelists, of which one has been entirely, and another in the. greater 
part, sacrificed to some wretched accessories in woodwork actually 
allowed to conceal portions of this most interesting mosaic ! As to 
expression, a severe solemnity is that prevailing, especially in the prin- 
cipal head, which alone is crowned with the nimbus — one among other 
proofs, if but negative, of its high antiquity." — Hemans' Ancient Chris- 
tia7t Art. 

Besides Sta. Pudentiana and St, Pudens, — St. Novatus and 
St. Siricius are said t.o be buried here. Those who visit this 
sanctuary every day obtain an indulgence of 3000 years, with 
remission of a third part of their sins ! Excavations made 
by Mr. J. H. Parker, in 1865, have laid bare some interest- 
ing constructions beneath the church — supposed to be those 
of the house of Pudens, a part of the public baths of 
Novatus, the son of Pudens, which were in use for some 
centuries after his time, and a chamber in which is supposed 
to have been the oratory dedicated by Pius I. in a.d. 145. 

" Eubulus greeteth thee, and Fiidens, and Linus, and Claudia, and 
all the brethren." — 2 Timothy iv. 21. 

The following account of the family of Pudens is received 
as the legacy of Pastor to the Christian Church. 

"Pudens went to his Saviour, leaving his daughters strengthened 
with chastity, and learned in all the divine law. These sold their goods, 
and distributed the produce to the poor, and persevered strictly in the 

* Roma Christiana. 



528 WALKS IX ROME. 

love of Christ, guarding intact the flower of their virg.Tiity, and only 
seeking for glory in vigils, fastings, and prayer. They desired to have a 
baptistery in their house, to which the blessed Pius not only consented, 
but with his own hand drew the plan of the fountain. Then calling in 
their slaves, both from town and country, the two virgins gave liberty 
to those who were Christians, and urged belief in the faith upon those 
who had not yet received it. By the advice of the blessed Pius, the 
affranchisement was declared, with all the ancient usages, in the oratory 
founded by Pudens ; then, at the festival of Easter, ninety-six neophytes 
were baptized ; so that thenceforth assemblies were constantly held in 
the said oratory, which night and day resounded with hymns of praise. 
Many pagans gladly came thither to find the faith and receive baptism. 

"Meanwhile the Emperor Antonine, being informed of what was 
taking place, issued an edict commanding all Christians to dwell apart 
in their own houses, without mixing with the rest of the people, and 
that they should neither go to the public shops, nor to the baths. 
Praxedis and Pudentiana then assembled those whom they had led to the 
faith, and housed them. They nourished them for many days, watching 
and praying. The blessed bishop Pius himself frequently visited us with 
joy, and offered the sacrifice for us to the Saviour. 

" Then Pudentiana went to God. Her sister and I wrapped her in 
perfumes and kept her concealed in the oratory. Then, at the end of 
tv.'enty-eight days, we carried her to the cemeter\' of Priscilla, and laid 
her near her father Pudens. 

" Eleven months after, Novatus died in his turn. He bequeathed his 
goods to Praxedis, and she then begged of St. Pius to erect a titular (a 
church) in the baths of Novatus, which were no longer used, and where 
there was a large and spacious hall. The bishop made the dedication in 
the name of the blessed virgin Praxedis. In the same place he conse- 
crated a baptistery. 

"But, at the end of two years, a great persecution was declared 
against the Christians, an 1 many of them received the crown of martyr- 
dom. Praxedis concealed a great number of them in her oratory, and 
nourished them at once with the food of this world and with the word of 
God. But the Emperor Antonine, having learnt that these meetings took 
place in the oratory of Priscilla, caused it to be searched, and many 
Christians were taken, especially the priest Simetrius and twenty-two 
others. And the blessed Praxedis collected their bodies by night, and 
buried them in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the seventh day of the calends 
of June. Then the virgin of the Saviour, worn out with sorrow, only 
asked for death. Her tears and her prayers reached to heaven, and fifty- 
four days after her brethren had suffered, she passed to God. And I, 
Pastor, th«: priest, have buried her body near that of her father Pudens." 
— From the Narratio7i of Pastor. 

Returning by the main line of streets to the Quattro 
Fontane, we skirt on the right the wall of the Villa Negroni 
(see Ch. XI.), Beyond this, on the left, is the Chm-ch of S. 
Paolo Pri7no Kre7nita. The strange-looking palm-tree over 
the door, with a raven perched upon it and two lions be- 
low, commemorates the story of the saint, who, retiring to 



S. PAOLO PRIMO EREMITA. 329 

the desert at the age of 22, Hved there till he was 112, 
eating nothing but the dates of his tree for twenty -two years, 
after which bread was daily brought to him by a raven. 
In his last hours St. Anthony came to visit him and was 
present at his burial, when two lions his companions came 
to dig his grave. The sustaining palm-tree and the three 
animals who loved S. Paolo are again represented over the 
altar. Further on the left, we pass the Via S. Yitale, occupy- 
ing the site of the Vicus Longus, considered by Dyer to have 
been the longest street in the ancient city. Here stood the 
temples of Sylvanus, and of Fever, with that of Pudicitia 
Plebeia, founded c. B.C. 297, by Virginia the patrician, wife 
of Volumnius, when excluded from the patrician temple of 
Pudicitia in the Forum Boarium, on account of her plebeian 
marriage. " At its altar none but plebeian matrons of un- 
impeachable chastity, and who had been married to only 
one husband, were allowed to sacrifice." * 

The Church of S. Vitale on the Viminal, which noAv 
stands here, was founded by Innocent I. in a.d. 416. The 
interior is covered with frescoes of martyrdoms. It is 
seldom open except early on Sunday mornings. S. Vitale, 
father of S. Gervasius and S. Protasius, was the martyr and 
patron saint of Ravenna who was buried alive under Nero. 
Beyond this, on the left of the Via delle Quattro Fontane, 
is the Church of S. Dionisio, belonging to the Basilian 
nuns, called Apostoline di S. Basilio. It contains an Ecce 
Homo of Luca Giordano^ and the gaudy shrine of the virgin 
martyr Sta. Coraola. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BATHS OF 
DIOCLETIAN. 

The Cappuccini — S. Isidoro — S. Niccolo in Tolentino — Via S. Basilio 
— Convent of the Pregatrici — Villa Massimo Rignano — Gardens 
of Sallust— Villa Ludovisi — Porta Salara — (Villa Albani— Cata- 
combs of Sta. Felicitasand Sta. Priscilla— Ponte Salara) — Porta Pia 

* Dyer, p. 94. 



330 WALKS IN ROME. 

— (Villa Torlonia — Sant' Agnese — Sta. Costanza — Ponte Nomen- 
tana — Mons Sacer — S. Alessandro) — Villa Torlonia within the 
walls — Via Macao — Pretorian Camp — Railway Station — Villa 
Negroni — Agger of Servius Tullius — Sta. Maria degli Angeli — 
Fountain of the Termini — Sta. Maria della Vittoria — Sta. Susanna 
— S. Bernardo — S. Caio. 

OPENING from the left of the Piazza Barberini, is the 
small Piazza of the Cappucci?ii, named from a convent 
which is one of the largest and most populous in Rome. 

The conventual church, dedicated to Sta. Maria della 
Concezione, contains several fine pictures. In the first 
chapel, on the right, is the magnificent Guido of the x\rch- 
angel Michael trampling upon the Devil, — said to be a 
portrait of Pope Innocent X., against whom the painter had 
a peculiar spite. 

" Here the angel, standing, yet scarcely touching the ground, poised 
on his outspread wings, sets his left foot on the head of his adversary ; in 
one hand he brandishes a sword, in the other he holds the end of a chain, 
with which he is about to bind down the demon in the bottomless pit. The 
attitude has been criticised, and justly ; the grace is somewhat mannered, 
verging on the theatrical ; but Forsyth is too severe when he talks of 
' the air of a dancing master ' : one thing, however, is certain, we do 
not think about the attitude when we look at Raphael's St. Michael (in 
the Louvre) ; in Guido's it is the first thing that strikes us ; but when we 
look farther, the head redeems all ; it is singularly beautiful, and in the 
blending of the masculine and feminine graces, in the serene purity of 
the brow, and the flow of the golden hair, there is something divine ; a 
slight, very slight expression of scorn is in the air of the head. The 
fiend is the worst part of the picture ; it is not a fiend, but a degraded 
prosaic human ruffian ; we laugh with incredulous contempt at the idea 
of an angel calkd down from heaven to overcome such a wretch. In 
Raphael the fiend is human, but the head has the god-like ugliness and 
malignity of a satyr ; Guido's fiend is only stupid and base. It appears 
to me that there is just the same difference — the same kind of difference 
— between the angel of Raphael and the angel of Guido, as between the 
description in Tasso and the description in Milton ; let any one compare 
them. In Tasso we are struck by the picturesque elegance of the 
description as a piece of art, the melody of the verse, the admirable 
choice of the expressions, as in Guido by the finished but somewhat 
artificial and studied grace. In Raphael and Milton. we see only the 
vision of a ' shape divine.' " — Jameson^ s Sacred Art, p. 107. 

In the same chapel is a picture by Gherardo della Notte 
of Christ in the purple robe. The third chapel contains a 
fresco by Dome}tichi7io of the Death of St. Francis, and a 
picture of the Ecstasy of St. Francis, which was a gift from 
the same painter to this church. 



THE CAPPUCCINT. 3:1 

The first chapel on the left contains The Visit of Ananias 
to Saul, by Pieiro da Cortona. 

"Whoever would know to what length this painter carried his style 
in his altar-piece should examine the Conversion of St. Paul in the Cap- 
puccini at Rome, which though placed opposite to the St. Michael of 
Guido, cannot fail to excite the admiration of such judges as are willing 
to admit various styles of beauty in art." — Lanzi. 

On the left of the high-altar is the tomb of Prince 
Alexander Sobieski, son of John III., king of Poland, who 
died at Rome in 17 14. 

The church was founded in 1624, by Cardinal Barberini, 
the old monk-brother of Urban VIII., who, while his nephews 
were employed in building magnificent palaces, refused to 
take advantage of the family elevation otherwise than to 
endow this church and convent. He is buried in front of 
the altar, with the remarkable epitaph — very different to the 
pompous, self-glorifying inscriptions of his brother — 

'Hie jacet pulvis, cinis, et nihil." 

This Cardinal Barberini possesses some historical inter- 
est from the patronage he extended to Milton during his 
visit to Rome in 1638. 

"During his sojourn in Rome Milton enjoyed the conversation of 
several learned and ingenious men, and particularly of Lucas Holsteinius, 
keeper of the Vatican library, who received him with the greatest 
humanity, and showed him all the Greek authors, whether in print or 
MS. — which had passed through his correction; and also presented him 
to Cardinal Barberini, who, at an entertainment of music, performed at 
his own expense, waited for him at the door, and taking him by the 
hand, brought him into the assembly. The next morning he waited 
upon the Cardinal to return him thanks for these civilities, and by the 
means of Holsteinius was again introduced to his Eminence, and spent 
some time in conversation with him." — Newton s Life of Milton * 

Over the entrance is a cartoon (with some differences) 
for the Navicella of Giotto. 

From this church is entered the famous cemetery of the 
Cappuccini (not subterranean), consisting of four chambers, 
ornamented with human bones in patterns, and with mum- 
mified bodies. The earth was brought from Jerusalem. As the 
cemetery is too small for the convent, when any monk dies, 

* "At Rome, Selvaggi made a Latin distich in honour of Milton, and Salsilli a 
Latin tetrastich, ce'ebrating him for his Greek, Latin, and ItaHan poetry ; and he in 
return presented to Salsilli in his sickness those fine Scazons or Iambic verses having 
a spondee in the last foot, which are inserted among his juvenile poems. From 
Rome he went to Naples," — Newton. 

Z 



332 JVALKS IX ROME. 

the one who has been buried longest is ejected to make 
room for him. The loss of a grave is supposed to be amply 
compensated by the short rest in the holy earth which the 
body has already enjoyed. It is pleasant to read on the 
spot the pretty sketch in the " Improvisatore." 

"I was playing near the church of the Capuchins, with some 
other children who were all younger than myself. There was fastened 
on the church door a little cross of metal ; it was fastened about the 
middle of the door, and I could just reach it with my hand. Always 
when our mothers had passed by with us they had lifted us up that we 
might kiss the holy sign. One day, when we children were playing, 
one of the youngest of them inquired, ' why the child Jesus did not 
come down and play with us?' I assumed an air of wisdom, and 
replied that he was really bound upon the cross. We went to the 
church door, and although we found no one, we wished, as our mothers 
had taught us, to kiss him, but we could not reach up to it ; one there- 
fore lifted up the other, but just as the lips were pointed for the kiss, 
that one who lifted the other lost his strength, and the kissing one fell 
down just when his lips were about to touch the invisible child Jesus. 
At that moment my mother came by, and when she saw our child's 
play, she folded her hands, and said, ' You are actually some of God's 
angels, and thou art mine own angel,' added she, and kissed me. 

"The Capuchin monk, Fra Martino, was my mother's confessor. 
He made very much of me, and gave me a picture of the Virgin, weeping 
great tears, v/hich fell, like rain-drops, down into the burning flames of 
hell, where the damned caught this draught of refreshment. He took 
me over with him into the convent, where the open colonnade, which 
enclosed in a square the little potato-garden, with the two cypress and 
orange-trees, made a veiy deep impression upon me. Side by side, in 
the open passages, hung old portraits of deceased monks, and on the 
door of each cell were pasted pictures from the history of the martyrs, 
which I contemplated with the same holy emotions as afterwards the 
masterpieces of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto. 

" ' Thou art really a bright youth,' said he ; ' thou shalt now see the 
dead.' Upon this, he opened a little door of a gallery which lay a feW' 
steps below the colonnade. We descended, and now I saw round 
about me skulls upon skulls, so placed one upon another, that they 
formed walls, and therewith several chapels. In these were regular 
niches, in which were seated perfect skeletons of the most distinguished 
of the monks, enveloped in their brown cowls, their cords round their 
waists, and with a breviary or withered bunch of flowers in their hands. 
Altars, chandeliers, bas-reliefs, of human joints, horrible and tasteless 
as the whole idea. I clung fast to the monk, who whispered a prayer, 
and then said to me, * Here also I shall some time sleep ; wilt thou 
thus visit me?' 

" I answered not a word, but looked horrified at him, and then round 
about me upon the strange grizzly assembly. It was foolish to take 
mc, a child, into this place. I was singularly impressed with the whole 
thing, and did not feel myself easy again until I came into his little cell, 
where the beautiful yellow oranges almost hung in at the window, and 



GARDENS OF SALLUST. 333 

I saw the brightly coloured picture of the Madonna, who was borne 
upwards by angels into the clear sunshine, while a thousand flowers 

filled the grave in which she had rested 

" On the festival of All-Saints I was down in the chapel of the dead, 
where Fra Martino took me when 1 first visited the convent. All the 
monks sang masses for the dead, and I, with two other boys of my own 
age, swung the incense-breathing censer before the great altar of skulls. 
They had placed lights in tlie chandeHers made of bones, new garlands 
were placed around the brows of the skeleton monks, and fresh bouquets 
in their hands. Many people, as usual, thronged in ; they all knelt and 
the singers intoned the solemn Miserere. I gazed for a long time on 
the pale yellow skulls, and the fumes of the incense which wavered in 
strange shapes between me and them, and everything began to swim 
round before my eyes ; it was as if I saw everything through a large 
rainbow ; as if a thousand prayer-bells rung in my ear ; it seemed as if 
I was borne along a stream ; it was unspeakably delicious — more, I 
know not ; consciousness left me, — I was in a swocii." — Hans Ch. 
Andersen. 

The street behind the Piazza Cappuccini leads to the 
Church of S. Isidore,^ built 1622, for Irish Franciscan monks. 
The altar-piece, representing S. Isidoro, is by Andrea Sacchi. 
This church contains several tombs of distinguished Irish- 
men who have died in Rome. 

Opposite are the recently founded convent and small 
chapel of the Pregatrici — nuns most picturesquely attired 
in blue and white, and devoted to tke perpetual adoration 
of the Sacrament, who sing during the Benediction service, 
like the nuns of the Trinita di Monti. 

The Via S. Niccolo in Tolentino leads by the handsome 
Church of that name, from the Piazza Barberini to the 
railway station. In this street are the hotels " Costanzi " 
and " Del Globo." 

Parallel with, and behind this, the Via S. Basilio runs up 
the hill-side. At the top of this street is the entrance of 
the Villa Massiino Rignano, containing some fine palm- 
trees. This site, with the ridge of the opposite hill, and the 
valley between, was once occupied by the Gardens of 
Saliusf {HoTti Pretiosissimi), purchased for the emperors after 
the death of the historian, and a favourite residence of 
Vespasian, Nerva, and especially of Aurelian. Some vaulted 
halls under the cliff of the opposite hill, and a circular 
ruin surrounded by niches, are the only remains of the 
many fine buildings which once existed here, and which 
comprised a palace, baths, and the portico called Millia- 

♦ A holy hermit of Scete, -who died 391. 



334 WALKS IN ROME. 

rensis, looo feet long. These edifices are known to have 
been ruined when Rome was taken by the Goths under 
Alaric (410), who entered at the neighbouring Porta Salara. 
The obeHsk now in front of the Trinita di Monti, was 
removed from hence by Pius VI. The picturesque old 
casino of the Barberini, which occupied the most promin- 
ent position in the gardens, was pulled down in 1869, to 
make way for a house belonging to Spithover the librarian. 
The hill-side is supported by long picturesque buttresses, 
beneath which are remains of the huge masonry of Servius 
Tullius, whose Agger may be traced on the ridge of the hill 
running towards the present railway station. Part of these 
grounds are supposed to have formed the Campus Sceleratus, 
where the vestal virgins suffered who had broken their vows 
of chastity. 

" When condemned by the college of pontifices, the vestal was 
stripped of her vittae and other badges of office, was scourged, was 
attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through the 
forum, attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies of a 
real funeral, to the Campus Sceleratus, within the city walls, close to 
the Colline gate. There a small vault underground had been previously 
prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. 
The Pontifex Maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered 
a secret prayer, opened the'litter, led forth the culprit, and placing her 
on the steps of the ladder which gave access to the subterranean cell, 
delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who 
conducted her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit with 
earth until the surface was level with the surrounding ground, left her 
to perish deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid to, the 
spirits of the departed. In every case the paramour was publicly 
scourged to death in the forum." — Smithes Diet of Antiquities. 

"A Vignaiuolo showed us in tlie Gardens of Sallust a hole, through 
which he said those vestal virgins were put who had violated their vows 
of chastity. While we were listening to their story, some pretty Con- 
tadini came up to us attended by their rustic swains, and after looking 
into the hole, pitied the vestal virgins — '■^ Poverine,^'' shrugged their 
shoulders, and laughing, thanked their stars and the Madonna, that 
poor Fanciulle were not buried alive for such things now-a-days." — 
Eaton^s Rome. 

A turn in the road now leads to the gate of the beautiful 
Villa Ludovisi, which may be visited on Thursdays by an 
order procured through a banker. In consequence of the 
constant residence at their villa of the excellent proprietors, 
the Duke and Duchess Sora, these orders are now less easy 
to obtain than formerly. 

The villa was built early in the last century by Cardinal 



VILLA LUDOVISL 335 

Ludovisi, nephew of Gregory XV., from whom it descended 
to the Prince of Piombino, father of Duke Sora. The 
grounds, which are of an extent extraordinary when con- 
sidered as being within the walls of a capital, were laid 
out by Le Notre, and are in the stift" French style of 
high clipped hedges, and avenues adorned with vases 
and sarcophagi. Near the entrance is a pretty fountain 
shaded by a huge plane-tree ; the Quirinal is seen in the 
distance. 

To the right of the entrance is the principal casino of 
sculptures, a very beautiful collection (catalogues on the 
spot). Especially remarkable are, — the grand colossal head, 
known as the " Ludovisi Juno " (41) ; 

' ' A Rome, une Junon surpasse toutes les autres par son aspect et 
rappelle la Junon de Polyclete par sa majeste: c'est la celebre Junon 
Ludovisi que Goethe admirait tant, et devant laquelle dans un acces de 
devotion paienne, — seul genre de devotion qu'il ait connu a Rome, — il 
faisait, nous dit-il, sa priere du matin. 

"Cette tete colossale de Junon offre bien les caracteres de la sculp- 
ture de Polyclete ; la gravite, la grandeur, la dignite ; mais ainsi que 
dans d'autres Junons qu'on peut supposer avoir ete sculptees a Rome, 
I'imitateur de Polyclete, on doit le croire, adoucit la severite,- je dirai 
presque la durete de I'original, telle qu'elle se montre sur les medailles 
d'Argos, et celles d'Elis," — Ampere, Hist. Romai7ie, iii. 264. 

— the Statue of Mars seated (1), with a Cupid at his feet, 
found in the portico of Octavia, and restored by Bernini ; 

"II y avait bien un Mars assis de Scopas, et ce Mars etait a Rome ; 
mais un dieu dans son temple devait etre assis sur un trone et non sur 
un rocher, comme le pretendu Mars Ludovisi. On a done eu raison, 
selon moi, de reconnaitre dans cette belle statue un Achille, a I'expres- 
sion pensive de son visage, et surtout a I'attitude caracteristique que le 
sculpteur lui a donnee, lui faisant embrasser son genou avec ses deux 
mains, attitude qui, dans le langage de la sculpture antique, etait le 
signe d'une meditation douloureuse. On citait comme tres-beaA un 
Achille de Silanion, sculpteur grec habile ^ rendre les sentiments 
violents. D'apres cela, son Achille pouvait 6tre un Achille indigne ; 
c'est de lui que viendrait r Achille de la villa '^udovisi. L'expression 
de depit, plus energique dans I'original, eut ete adoucie dans une 
admirable copie.' — Ainpere, Hist. Rofii. iii. 437. 

— and No. 28 ; 

* Le beau groupe auquel on avait donne le nom d' Arria et Psetus ; 
il fallait fermer les yeux a I'evidence pour voir un Romain du temps de 
Claude dans-ce chef barbare qui, apres avoir tue sa femme, se frappe 
lui-meme d'un coup mortel. Le type du visage, la chevelure, le 
caractere de Paction, tout est gaulois ; la maniere meme dont s'accom- 
plit r immolation volontaire raontro que ce n'est pas un Romain que 



33^ WALKS N ROME. 

nous avons devant les yeux ; un Romain se tuait plus simplement, avec 
moiiis de fracas. Le principal personnage du groupe Ludovisi conserve 
en ce moment supreme quelque chose de triomphant et de theatral ; 
soulevant d'une main sa femme affaissee sous le coup qu'il lui a porte, 
de I'autre il enfonce son epee dans sa poitrine. La tete haute, Toeil 
tourne vers le ciel, il semble repeter le mot de sa race : 'Je ne crains 
qu'une chose, c'est que le ciel tombe sur ma tete.' " — Ampere, Hist. 
Rom. iii. 207. 

At the end of the gardens, to the left, is another 
casino, from whose roof a most beautiful view may be 
obtained. Here are the most famous frescoes of Giier- 
ciiio. On the ceiling of the ground-floor, Aurora driving 
away Night and scattering flowers in her course, with 
Evening and Daybreak in the lunettes ; and, on the first 
floor, " Fame " attended by Force and Virtue. Smaller 
rooms on the ground floor have landscapes by Guercino 
and Domenichino, and some groups of Cupids by T. Zucchero ; 
on the staircase is a fine bas-relief of two Cupids dragging 
a quiver. 

"The prophets and sibyls of Guercino da Cento (1590— 1666), and 
his Aurora, in a garden pavilion of the Villa Ludovisi, at Rome, almost 
attain to the effect of oil paintings in their glowing colouring combined 
with the broad and dark masses of shadow." — Kugler. 

" Li allegorising nature, Guercino imitates the deep shades of night, 
the twilight grey, ana the irradiations of morning, with all the magic of 
chiaroscuro ; but his figures are too mortal for the region where they 
move . ' ' — Forsyth . 

In B.C. 82, the district near the Porta Collina, now occu- 
pied by the Villa Ludovisi, was the scene of a great battle 
for the very existence of Rome, between Sylla, and the 
Samnites and Lucanians under the Samnite general Pontius 
Telesinus, who declared he would raze the city to the 
ground if he were victorious. The left wing under Sylla 
was put to flight ; but the right wing, commanded by 
Crassus, enabled him to restore the battle, and to gain a 
complete victory ; fifty thousand men fell on each side. 

The road now runs along the ridge of the hill to the Porta 
Salara, by which Alaric entered Rome through the treachery 
of the Isaurian guard, on the 24th of August, 410. 

Passing through the gate and turning to the right along 
the outside of the wall, we may see, against the grounds of 
the Villa Ludovisi, the two round towers of the now closed 
Porta Pi?icLana, restored by Belisarius. This is the place 
\^'lK■^c tradition declares that in his declining years the 



VILLA ALBANI. 337 

great general sat begging, with the cry, " Date obolum 
Belisario." 

"A cote de la Porta Pinciana, on lit sur une pierre les paroles cele- 
bres : ' Donnez une obole a Belisaire ' ; mais cette inscription est 
moderne, comme la legende a laquelle elle fait allusion, et qu'on ne 
troiive dans nul historien contemporain de Belisaire. Belisaire ne de- 
manda jamais I'aumone, et si le cicerone montre encore aux voyageurs 
I'endroit ou, vieux et aveugle, il implorait une obole de la charite des 
passants, c'est que pres de ce lieu il avait, sur la colline du Pincio, son 
palais, situe entre les jardins de LucuUus et les jardins de Salluste, et 
digne probablement de ce double voisinage par sa magnificence. Ce 
qui est vrai, c'est que le vainqueur des Goths et des Vandales fut dis- 
gracie par Justinien, grace aux intrigues de Theodora. La legende, 
comme presque toujours, a exprime par une fable une verite, I'ingratitude 
si frequente des souverains envers ceux qui leur ont rendu les plus 
grands services." — Ampere^ Emp. ii. 396. 



A short distance from the gate, along the Via Salara, is, 
on the right, the Villa Alba7ii (shown on Tuesdays by an 
order), built in 1760 by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, — sold 
in 1834 to the Count of Castelbarco, and in 1868 to Prince 
Torlonia, its present possessor. The scene from its garden 
terrace is among the loveliest of Roman pictures, the view 
of the delicate Sabine mountains — Monte Gennaro, with 
the Montecelli beneath it — and in the middle distance, the 
churches of Sant' Agnese and Sta. Costanza, relieved by dark 
cypresses and a graceful fountain. 

The Casino^ which is, in fact, a magnificent palace, is 
remarkable as having been built from Cardinal Albani's own 
designs. Carlo Marchionni having been only employed to 
see that they were carried out. 

"Here is a villa of exquisite design, planned by a profound anti- 
quary. Here Cardinal Albani, having spent his life in collecting 
ancient sculpture, formed such porticoes and such saloons to receive it 
as an old Roman would have done : porticoes where the statues stood 
free upon the pavement between columns proportioned to their stature ; 
saloons which were not stocked but embellished with families of allied 
statues, and seemed ftdl without a crowd. Here Winckelmann grew 
into an antiquary under the cardinal's patronage and instruction ; and 
here he projected his history of art, which brings this collection con- 
tinually into view." — Forsyth's Italy. 

The collection of sculptures is much reduced since the 
French invasion, when 294 of the finest specimens were 
carried off by Napoleon to Paris, where they were sold by 
Prince Albani upon their restoration in 18 15, as he was 



338 WALKS AV ROME. 

unwilling to bear the expense of transport. The greater 
proportion of the remaining statues are of no great import- 
ance. Those of the imperial family in the vestibule are 
interesting — those of Julius and Augustus Caesar, of Agrip- 
pina wife of Germanicus, and of Faustina, are seated ; most 
of the heads have been restored. 

Conspicuous among the treasures of this villa, are the 
sarcophagus with reliefs of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, 
pronounced by Winckelmann to be one of the finest in 
existence ; a head of ^sop, supposed to be after Lysippus ; 
and the bronze " Apollo Sauroctonos," considered by 
Winckelmann to be the original statue by Praxiteles de- 
scribed by Pliny, and the most beautiful bronze statue in 
the world, — it was found on the Aventine. But most 
important of all is the famous relievo of Antinous crowned 
with lotus, from the Villa Adriana (over the chimney-piece 
of the first room to the right of the saloon), supposed to have 
formed part of an apotheosis of Antinous : 

" As fresh, and as highly finished, as if it had just left the studio of 
the sculptor, this work, after the Apollo and the Laocoon, is perhaps 
the most beautiful monument of antiquity which time has transmitted to 
us." — Winckelmann, Hist. deVArt, vi. ch. 7. 

Inferior only to this, is another bas-relief, also over a 
chimney-piece, — the parting of Orpheus and Eurydice. 

" Les deux epoux vont se quitter. Eurydice attache sur Orphee un 
profond regard d'adieu. Sa main est posee sur I'epaule de son epoux, 
geste ordinaire dans les groupes qui expriment la separation de ceux qui 
s'aiment. La main d' Orphee degage doucement celle d'Eurydice, 
tandis que Mercure fait de la sienne un leger mouvement pour I'en- 
trainer. Dans ce leger mouvement est tout leur sort ; I'efifet le plus 
pathetique est produit par la composition la plus simple ; I'emotion la 
plus penetrante s' exhale de la sculpture la plus tranquille." — Ampere, 
Hist. Rom. iii. 256. 

The villa also contains a collection of pictures, of which 
the most interesting are the sketches of Giulio Romajio for 
the frescoes of the story of Psyche in the Palazzo del Te 
at Mantua, and two fine pictures by Luca Signorelli and 
Perugino, in compartments, in the first room on the left of 
the saloon. All the works of art have lately been rearranged. 
The Caffe and the Bigliardo — (reached by an avenue of oaks, 
which, being filled with ancient tombstones, has the efi"ect of 
a cemetery) — contain more statues, but of less importance. 

Beyond the villa, the Via Salara (said by Pliny to de- 



PONTE SALARA. 339 

rive its name from the salt of Ostia exported lo the north 
by this route) passes on the left the site of Antemn^, and 
crosses the Anio two miles from the city, by the Fonte 
Salara, destroyed by the Roman government in the terror 
of Garibaldi's approach from Monte Rotondo, in 1867. 
This bridge was a restoration by Narses, in the sixth cen- 
tury, but stood on the foundations of that famous Ponte 
Salara, upon which Titus Manlius fought the Gaulish giant, 
and cutting off his head, carried off the golden collar which 
earned him the name of Torquatus. 

"Manlius prend un bouclier leger de fantassin, une epee espagnole 
commode pour combattre de tres-pres, et s'avance a la rencontre du 
Barbare. Les deux champions, isoles sur le pont, comme sur un theatre, 
se joignent au milieu. Le Barbare portait un vetement bariole et une 
armure ornee de dessins et d'incrustations dorees, confovme au caractere 
de sa race, aussi vaine que vaillante. Les armes du Romain etaient 
bonnes, mais sans eclat. Point chez lui, comme chez son adversaire, 
de chant, de transports, d'armes agitees avec fureur, mais un cceur plein 
de courage et d'une colere muette qu'il reservait tout entiere pour le 
combat. 

" Le Gaulois, qui depassait son adversaire de toute la tete, met en 
avant son bouclier el fait tomber pesamment son glaive sur I'armure de 
son adversaire. Celui-ci le heurte deux fois de son bouclier, le force a 
reculer, le trouble, et se glissant alors entre le bouclier et le corps du 
Gaulois, de deux coups rapidement portes lui ouvre le ventre. Quand 
le grand corps est tombe, Manlius lui coupe la tete, et, ramassant le 
collier de son ennemi decapite, jette tout sanglant sur son cou ce collier, 
le torques, propre aux Gaulois, et qu'on pent voir au Capitole porte 
par celui qu'on appelle a tort le gladiateur mourant. Un 5oldat donne, 
en plaisantant, a Manlius le sobriquet de Torquatus, que sa famille a 
toujours ete fiere de porter." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 10. 

Beyond the ruins of the bridge, is a huge tomb with a 
tower, now used as an Osteria. Hence, the road leads by 
the Villa of Phaon (Villa Spada) where Nero died, and the 
site of Fidenae, now known as Castel Giubeleo, to Monte 
Rotondo. 

The district beyond the Porta Salara, and that extending 
between the Via Salara and the Monte Parioli, are com 
pletely undennined by catacombs (see Ch. IX.). The most 
important are — i. Nearest the gate, the Catacomb of St 
Felicitas, which had three tiers of galleries, adorned by Pope 
Boniface I., who took refuge there from persecution, — now 
much dilapidated. Over this cemetery was a church, now 
destroyed, which is mentioned by William of Malmesbury. 
2. The Catacomb of SS. Thraso and Satuniijius, much 



340 WALKS IN ROME. 

decorated with the usual paintings. 3. The Catacomb of Sta. 
Priscil/a, near the descent to the Anio. This cemetery is 
of great interest, from the number of martyrs' graves it 
contains, and from its pecuHar construction in an ancient 
arenarium^ pillars and walls of masonry being added 
throughout the central part, in order to sustain the tufa 
walls. Here were buried — probably because the entrance to 
the Chapel of the Popes at St. Calixtus was blocked up to 
preserve it in the persecution under Diocletian — Pope St. 
Marcellinus (ob. 308), and Pope St. Marcellus (ob. 310), 
who was sent into exile by Maxentius. On the tomb of the 
latter was placed, in finely cut type, the following epitaph by 
Pope Damasus : — 

"Veredicus Rector, lapses quia crimina flere 
Prsedixit, miseris fuit omnibus hostis amarus. 
Hinc furor, hinc odium sequitur, discordia, lites, 
Seditio, caedes, solvuntur foedera pads. 
Crimen ob alterius Christum qui in pace negavit, 
Finibus expulsus patriae est feritate tyranni. 
Hsec breviter Damasus voluit comperta referre, 
Marcelli ut populus meritum cognoscere posset." 
" The truth-speaking pope, because he preached that the lapsed 
should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those unhappy 
ones. Hence followed fury, hatred, discord, contentions, sedition, and 
slaughter, and the bonds of peace were ruptured. For the crime of 
another, who in (a time of) peace had denied Christ, (the pontiff) was 
expelled the shores of his country by the cruelty of the tyrant. These 
things Damasus having learnt, was desirous to narrate briefly, that 
people might recognise the merit of Marcellus." * 

Several of the paintings in this catacomb are remarkable ; 
especially that of a woman with a child, claimed by the 
Roman Church as one of the earliest representations of the 
Virgin. The painting is thus described by Northcote : — 

"De Rossi unhesitatingly says that he believes this painting of our 
Blessed Lady to belong almost to the apostolic age. It is to be seen on 
the vaulted roof of a loculus, and represents the Blessed Virgin seated, 
her head partially covered by a short light veil, and with the Holy 
Child in her arms ; opposite to her stands a man, clothed in the pallium, 
holding a volume in one hand, and with the other pointing to a star 
which appears above and between the figures. This star almost always 
accompanies our Blessed Lady, both in paintings and in sculptures, 
where there is an obvious historical excuse for it, e.g., when she is re- 
presented with the Magi offering their gifts, or by the side of the 
manger with the ox and the ass; but with a single figure, as in the 

* See Roma Sotterranea, p. 174. 



CA TA COMB OF ST A. PR ISC ILL A. 34 1 

present instance, it is unusual. The most obvious conjecture would be 
that the figure was meant for St. Joseph, or for one of the Magi. De 
Rossi, however, gives many reasons for preferring the prophet Isaias, 
whose prophecies concerning the Messias abound with imagery borrowed 
from light." — Roma Sotten^anea. 

This catacomb is one of the oldest, Sta. Priscilla, from 
whom it is named, being supposed to have been the mother 
of Pudens, and a contemporary of the apostles. Her 
granddaughters, Praxedis and Pudentiana, were buried 
here before the removal of their relics to the church on the 
Esquiline. With this cemetery is connected the extraordin- 
ary history of the manufacture of Sta. Filomena, now one 
of the most popular saints in Italy, and one towards whom 
idolatry is carried out with frantic enthusiasm both at Domo 
d'Ossola and in some of the Neapolitan States. The story 
of this saint is best told in the words of Mrs. Jameson. 

"In the year 1802, while some excavations were going forward in 
the catacomb of Priscilla, a sepulchre was discovered containing the 
skeleton of a young female ; on the exterior were rudely painted some 
of the symbols constantly recurring in these chambers of the dead ; an 
anchor, an olive branch (emblems of Hope and Peace), a scourge, two 
arrows, and a javelin: above them the following inscription, of which 
the beginning and end were destroyed : — 

LUMENA PAX TE CUM FI 

"The remains, reasonably supposed to be those of one of the early 
martyrs for the faith, were sealed up and deposited in the treasuiy of 
relics in the Lateran ; here they remained for some years unthought 
of. On the return of Pius VII. from France, a Neapolitan prelate was 
sent to congratulate him. One of the priests in his train, who wished 
to create a sensation in his district, where the long residence of the 
French had probably caused some decay of piety, begged for a few 
relics to carry home, and these recently discovered remains were 
bestowed on him ; the inscription was translated somewhat freely, to 
signify Santa Philumena, rest in peace. Another priest, whose name is 
suppressed because of his great Jmmility, was favoured by a vision in the 
broad noon-day, in which he beheld the glorious virgin Filomena, who 
was pleased to reveal to him that she had suffered death for preferring 
the Christian faith and her vow of chastity to the addresses of the 
emperor, who wished to make her his wife. This vision leaving much 
of her history obscure, a certain young artist, whose name is also 
suppressed, perhaps because of his great humility, was informed in a 
vision that the emperor alluded to was Diocletian, and at the same 
time the torments and persecutions suffered by the Christian virgin 
Filomena, as well as her wonderful constancy, were also revealed to 
him. There were some difficulties in the way of the Emperor Diocle- 
tian, which incline the writer of the historical account to incline to the 
opinion that the young artist in his wisdom may have made a mistake, 
,and that the emperor may have been not Diocletian but Maximian. The 



342 WALKS IN ROME. 

facts, however, now admitted of no doubt ; the relics were carried by 
the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples ; they were enclosed in a case 
of \vood resembling in form the human body ; this figure was habited 
in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a crimson tunic after the Greek 
fashion ; the face was painted to represent nature, a garland of flowers 
was placed on the head, and in the hands a lily and a javelin with the 
point reversed to express her purity and her martyrdom ; then she was 
laid in a half-sitting posture in a sarcophagus, of which the sides were 
glass, and, after lying for some time in state in the chapel of the Torres 
family in the Church of Sant' Angiolo, she was carried in grand proces- 
sion to Mugnano, a little town about twenty miles from Naples, amid 
the acclamations of the people, working many and surprising miracles 

by the way Such is the legend of Sta. Filomena, and such 

the authority on which she has become within the last twenty years one 
of the most popular saints in Italy." — Sacred and Legendary Art, 
p. 671. 

It is hoped that very interesting relics may still be dis- 
covered in this Catacomb. 

"In an account preserved by St. Gregory of Tours, we are told that 
under Numerianus, the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were put to 
death in an arenaria, and that a great number of the faithful having 
been seen entering a subterranean crypt on the Via Salara, to visit 
their tombs, the heathen emperor caused the entrance to be hastily 
built up, and a vast mound of sand and stone to be heaped iri front of 
it, so that they might be all buried alive, even as the martyrs whom they 
had come to venerate. St. Gregory adds, that when the tombs of these 
martyrs were re-discovered, after the ages of persecution had ceased, 
there were found with them, not only the relics of those worshippers 
who had been thus cruelly put to death, skeletons of men, women, and 
children lying on the floor, but also the silver cruets [urcei argentei) 
which they had taken down with them for the celebration of the sacred 
mysteries.**. St. Damasus was unwilling to destroy so touching a memo- 
rial of past ages. He abstained from making any of those changes by 
which he usually decorated the martyrs' tombs, but contented himself 
with setting up one of his invaluable historical inscriptions, and opening 
a window in the adjacent wall or rock, that all might see, without dis- 
turbing, this monument so unique in its kind — this Christian Pompeii in 
miniature. These things might still be seen in St. Gregory's time, in 
the sixth century ; and De Rossi holds out hopes that some traces of 
them may be restored even to our own generation, some fragments of 
the inscription perhaps, or even the window itself through which our 
ancestors once saw so moving a spectacle, assisting, as it were, at a 
mass celebrated in the third century." — Roma Sotterranea, p. 88. 



Returning to the Porta Salara, and following the walls, we 
reach the Forfa Pia, built, as it is now seen, by Pius IX. — 
very ugly, but appropriately decorated with statues of St. 
Agnes and St. Alexander, to whose shrines it leads. The 
statues lost their heads in the capture of Rome in 1870 by 



PORTA NOMENTANA. 343 

the Italian troops, who entered the city by a breach :'in the 
walls close to this. A little to the right was the Porta 
Nomentaiia, flanked by round towers, closed by Pius IV. It 
was by this gate that the oppressed Roman people retreated 
to the Mons Sacer — and that Nero fled. 

*'Suivons-le du Grand-Cirque a la porte Nomentane. Quel spec- 
tacle ! Neron, accoutume a toutes les recherches de la volupte, 
s'avance a cheval, les pieds nus, en chemise, convert d'un vieux manteau 
dont la couleur etait passee, un mouchoir sur le visage. Quatre per- 
sonnes seulement I'accompagnent ; parmi elles est ce Sporus, que dans 
un jour d'indicibie folie il avait publiquement epouse. II sent la terre 
trembler, il voit les eclairs au ciel : Neron a peur. Tons ceux qu'il a 
fait mourir lui apparaissent et semblent se precipiter sur lui. Nous 
voici a la porte Nomentane, qui touche au Camp des Pretoriens. 
Neron reconnait ce lieu ou, il y a quinze ans, suivant alors le chemin 
qu'il vient de suivre, il est venu se faire reconnaitre empereur par les 
pretoriens. En passant sous les murs de leur camp, vers lequel son 
destin le ramene, il les entend former des voeux pour Galba, et lancer 
des imprecations contre lui. Un passant lui dit : ' Voila des gens qui 
cherchent Neron.' Son cheval se cabre au milieu de la route : c'est 
qu'il a flair6 un cadavre. Le mouchoir qui couvrait son visage tombe ; 
un pretorien qui se trouvait la le ramasse et le rend a I'empereur, qu'il 
salue par son nom. A chacun de ces incidents son effroi redouble. 
Enfin il est arrive a un petit chemin qui s'ouvre a notre gauche, dans 
la direction de la voie Salara, parallele a la voie Nomentane. C'est 
entre ces deux voies q a' etait la villa de Phaon, a quatre mil les de Rome. 
Pour I'attendre, Neron, qui a mis pied a terre, s'enfonce a travers un 
fourre d'epines et un champ de roseaux comme il s'en trouve tant dans 
la Campagne de Rome ; il a peine de s'y frayer un chemin ; il arrive 
ainsi au mur de derriere de la villa. Pres de la etait un de ces antres 
creuses pour 1' extraction du sable volcanique, appele pouzzolane, tels 
qu'on en voit encore de ce cote. Phaon engage le fugitif a s'y cacher ; 
il refuse. On fait un trou dans la muraille de la villa par ou il penetre, 
marchant quatre pieds, dans I'interieur. II entre dans une petite salle et 
se couche sur un lit forme d'un mechant matelas sur lequel on avait 
jete un vieux manteau. Ceux qui I'entourent le pressent de mourir 
pour echapper aux outrages et au supplice. II essaye a plusieurs 
reprises de se donner la mort et n'y pent se resoudre ; il pleure. Enfin, 
en entendant les cavaliers qui venaient le saisir, il cite im vers grec, fait 
un effort et se tue avec le secours d'un affranchi." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 65. 



Immediately outside the Porta Pia is the entrance of the 
beautiful Villa Fatrizi, whose grounds enclose the small 
Catacoi7ib of St. Nicotnedus. Then comes the Villa Lezzani, 
where Sta. Giustina is buried in a chapel, and where her 
festa is observed on the 25th of October. 

Beyond this is the ridiculous Villa Tor Ionia (shown with 



344 WALKS IN ROME. 

an order on Wednesdays from 1 1 to 4, but not worth seeing), 
sprinkled with mock ruins. 

At httle more than a mile from the gate the road reaches 
the Basilica of Sf Agjiese fuori le Mura, founded by Con- 
stantine at the request of his daughter Gonstantia, in 
honour of the virgin martyr buried in the neighbouring 
catacomb; but rebuilt 625 — t,% by Honorius I. It was 
altered in 1490 by Innocent VIII., but retains more of 
its ancient character than most of the Roman churches. 
The polychrome decorations of the interior, and the re- 
building of the monastery, were carried out at the expense 
of Pius IX., as a thank-offering for his escape, when he fell 
through the floor here into a cellar, with his cardinals and 
attendants, on April 15, 1855. The scene is represented 
in a large fresco by Domenico Tojefti, in a chamber on the 
right of the courtyard. 

The approach to the church is by a picturesque staircase 
of forty-five ancient marble steps, lined with inscriptions 
from the catacombs. The nave is divided from the aisles by 
sixteen columns, four of which are of " porta-santa " and t\vo 
of " pavonazzetto." A smaller range of columns above these 
supports the roof of a triforium, which is on a level with 
the road. The baldacchino, erected in 16 14, is supported 
by four porphyry columns. Beneath is the shrine of St. 
Agnes surmounted by her statue, an antique of oriental 
alabaster, with modern head, and hands of gilt bronze. The 
mosaics of the tribune, representing St. Agnes between 
Popes Honorius I. and Symmachus, are of the seventh 
century. Beneath, is an ancient episcopal chair. 

The second chapel on the right has a beautiful mosaic 
altar, and a relief of SS. Stephen and Laurence of 1490. 
The third chapel is that of St. Emerentiana, foster-sister 
of St. Agnes, who was discovered praying beside the tomb 
of her friend, and was stoned to death because she refused 
to sacrifice to idols. 

"So ancient is the worship paid to St. Agnes, that next to the 
Evangelists and Apostles, there is no saint whose effigy is older. It is 
found on the ancient glass and earthenware vessels used by the Chris- 
tians in the early part of the third century, with her name inscribed, 
which leaves no doubt of her identity. But neither in these images, no.- 
in the mosaics, is the lamb introduced, which in later times has become 
her inseparable attribute, as the patroness of maidens and maidenly 
modesty." — Jamesoiis Sacred Art ^ p. 105. 



Sr AGNESE FUORI AlURA. 345 

St Agnes suifered martyrdom by being stabbed in the 
throat, under Diocletian, in her thirteenth year (see Ch. 
XIV.), after which, according to the expression used in the 
acts of her martyrdom, her parents " with all joy " laid her in 
the catacombs. One day as they were praying near the body 
of their child, she appeared to them surrounded by a great 
multitude of virgins, triumphant and glorious like herself, 
with a lamb by her side, and said, "I am in heaven, living 
with these virgins my companions, near Him whom I have 
so much loved." By her tomb, also, Constantia, a princess 
sick with hopeless leprosy, was praying for the healing of her 
body, when she heard a voice saying, " Rise up, Constantia, 
and go on constantly (' Costanter age, Constantia ') in the 
faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shall heal your 
diseases," — and, being cured of her evil, she besought her 
father to build this basilica as a thank-offering.* 

On the 2ist of January, a beautiful service is celebrated 
here, in which two lambs, typical of the purity of the virgin 
saint, are blessed upon the altar. They are sent by the 
chapter of St. John Lateran, and their wool is aftenvards 
used to make the pallium of the pope, which is consecrated 
before it is worn, by being deposited in a golden urn upon 
the tomb of St. Peter. The pallium is the sign of episcopal 
jurisdiction. 

*' Ainsi, le simple ornenient de laine que ces prelats doivent porter 
sur leurs epaules comme symbole de la brebis du bon Pasteur, et que le 
pontife Romain prend sur I'autel meme de Saint Pierre pour le leur 
adresser, va porter jusqu'aux extremites de I'Eglise, dans une union 
sublime, le double sentiment de la force du Prince des Apotres et de la 
douceur virginale d' Agnes." — Dom Guerauger. 

Close to St' Agnese is the round Church of Sia. Costanza. 
erected by Constantine as a mausoleum for his daughters 
Constantia and Helena, and converted into a church by 
Alexander IV. (1254 — 61) in honour of the Princess Con- 
stantia, ob. 354, whose life is represented by Marcellinus as 
anything but saintlike, and who is supposed to have been 
confused in her canonization with a sainted nun of the same 
name. The rotunda, seventy-three feet in diameter, is sur- 
rounded by a vaulted corridor ; twenty-four double columns 
of granite support the dome. The vaulting is covered with 
mosaic arabesques of the fourth century, of flowers and birds, 

* Une ChrStienne ^ Rome. 



$46 WALKS LV ROME. 

with scenes referring to a vintage. The same subjects are re- 
peated on the splendid porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Costanza, 
of which the interest is so greatly marred by its removal to 
the V^atican from its proper site, whence it was first stolen 
by Pope Paul II., who intended to use it as his own tomb. 

" Les enfants qui foulent le raisin, tels qu'on les voit dans les 
mosaiques de I'eglise de Sainte Constance, les bas-reliefs de son tombeau 
et ceux de beaucoup d'autres tombeaux chretiens sont bien d'origine 
paienne, car on les voit aussi figurer dans les bas-reliefs ou parait 
Priape." — Ampere, Hist Rom. iii. 257. 

Behind the two churches is an oblong space, ending in a 
fine mass of ruin, which is best seen from the valley below. 
Thrs was long supposed to be the Hippodrome of Constan- 
tine, but is now discovered to have belonged to an early 
Christian cemetery. 

The Catacomb of Sf Ag7ies€ is entered from a vineyard 
about a quarter of a mile beyond the church. It is 
lighted and opened to the public on St. Agnes' Day. After 
those of St. Calixtus, this, perhaps, is the catacomb which 
is most worthy of a visit. 

We enter by a staircase attributed to the time of Constan- 
tine. The passages are lined with the usual locu/i for the 
dead, sometimes adapted for a single body, sometimes for 
two laid together. Beside many of die graves the palm of 
victory may be seen scratched on the mortar, and remains of 
the glass bottles or a7?2j>ullcB, which are supposed to indicate 
the graves of n^artyrs, and to have contained a portion of their 
blood, of which they are often said to retain the trace. One 
of the graves in the first gallery bears the names of consuls 
of A.D. 336, which fixes the date of this part of the cemetery. 

The most interesting features here are a square chamber 
hewn in the rock, with an arm-chair (sedia) cut out of the 
rock on either side of the entrance, supposed to have been 
a school for catechists, — and near this is a second chamber 
for female catechists, with plain seats in the same position. 
Opening out of the gallery close by is a chamber which was 
apparently used as a chapel ; its arcosolium has marks of an 
altar remaining at the top of the grave, and near it is a 
credence-table ; the roof is richly painted, — in the central 
compartment is our Lord seated between the rolls of the 
Old and New Testament. Above the arcosolium, in the 
place of honour, is our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, 



CATACOMB OF ST AGNESE. 347 

bearing a sheep upon his shoulders, and standing between 
other sheep and trees ; — in the other compartments are 
Daniel in the lions' den, the Three Children in the furnace, 
Moses taking off his shoes, Moses striking the rock, and 
— nearest the entrance — the Paralytic carrying his bed. 
A neighbouring chapel has also remains of an altar and 
, credence-table, and well-preserved paintings, — the Good 
Shepherd, Adam and Eve, with the tree between them, Jonah 
under the gourd, and in the fourth compartment a figure de- 
scribed by Protestants merely as an Orante, and by Roman 
Catholics as the Blessed Virgin/^ Near this chapel we can 
look down through an opening into the second floor of the 
catacomb, which is lined with graves like the first. 

In the further part of the catacomb is a long narrow 
chapel which has received the name of the cathedral or 
basilica. It is divided into three parts, of which the furthest, 
or presbytery, contains an ancient episcopal chair with lower 
seats on either side for priests — probably the throne where 
Pope St. Liberius (a.d. 359) officiated, with his face to the 
people, when he lived for more than a year hidden here 
from persecution. Hence a flight of steps leads down to 
what Northcote calls " the Lady Chapel," where, over the 
altar, is a fresco of an orante, without a nimbus, with out- 
stretched arms, — with a child in front of her. On either 
side of this picture, a very interesting one, is the monogram 
of Constantine, and the painting is referred to his time. 
Near this chapel is a chamber with a spring running through 
it, evidently used as a baptistery. 

At the extremity of the catacomb, under the basilica of 
St. Agnes, is one of its most interesting features. Here the 
passages become wider and more irregular, the walls sloping 
and unformed, and graves cease to appear, indicating one of 
the ancient arenaria, which here formed the approach to the 
catacomb, and beyond which the Christians excavated their 
cemetery. 

The graves throughout almost all the catacombs have 
been rifled, the bones which they contained being distri- 
buted as relics throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, 
and most of the sarcophagi and inscriptions removed to the 
Lateran and other museums. 

* The reasons for this belief are given in " The Roman Catacombs of Northcote," 
p. 73. 

2 A 



348 WALKS IN 1^0 ME. 

'* Vous pouiriez voir ici la capitale des catacombes de toute la chre- 
tiente. Les martyrs, les confesseurs, et les vierges, y fourmillent de tous 
cotes. Quand on se fait besoin de quelques reliques en pays etrangers, 
le Pape n'a qu'a descendre ici et crier, Qui de vous autres vent allcr etre 
saint en Pologne? Alors, s'il se trouve quelque mort de bonne volonte, 
il se leve et s'en va." — De Brasses, 1739. 

Half a mile beyond St' Agnese, the road reaches the 
willow-fringed river Anio, in which " Silvia changed her 
earthly life for that of a goddess," and which carried the 
cradle containing her two babes Romulus and Remus into 
the Tiber, to be brought to land at the foot of the Palatine 
fig-tree. Into this river we may also recollect that Sylla 
caused the ashes of his ancient rival Marius to be thrown. 
The river is crossed by the Ponte JSJo?iientana, a mediaeval 
bridge, partially covered, Avith forked battlements. 

" Ponte Nomentana is a solitar}' dilapidated bridge in the spacious 
green Campagna. Many ruins from the days of ancient Rome, and 
many watch-towers from the middle ages, are scattered over this long 
succession of meadows ; chains of hills rise towards the horizon, now 
partially covered with snow, and fantastically varied in form and colour 
by the shadows of the clouds. And there is also the enchanting 
vapoury vision of the Alban hills, which change their hues like the 
chameleon, as you gaze at them — where you can see for miles little 
white chapels glittering on the dark foreground of the hills, as far as 
the Passionist Conveift on the summit, and whence you can trace the 
road winding through thickets, and the hills sloping downwards to the 
lake of Albano, while a hermitage peeps through the trees." — Mendels' 
so/ut's Letters. 

The hill immediately beyond the bridge is the Mons Sacer 
(not only the part usually pointed out on the right of the 
road, but the whole hillside), to which the famous secession 
of the Plebs took place in B.C. 549, amounting, according to 
Dionysius, to. about 4000 persons. Here they encamped 
upon the green slopes for four months, to the terror of the 
patricians, who foresaw that Rome, abandoned by its de- 
fenders, would fall before its enemies, and that the crops 
would perish for want of cultivation. Here Menenius Ag- 
rippa delivered his apologue of the belly and its members, 
which is said to have induced them to return to Rome ; that 
which really decided them to do so being the concession of 
tribunes, to be the organs and representatives of the plebs 
as the consuls were of the patricians. The epithet Sacer is 
ascribed by Dionysius to an altar which the plebeians erected 
at the time on the hill to Zcuf Aft^artoc 

A second secession to the Mons Sacer took place in b.c. 



S. ALESSANDRO. 349 

449, when the plebs rose against Appius Claudius after the 
death of Virginia, and retired hither under the advice of 
M. Duihus, till the decemvirs resigned. 

Following the road beyond the bridge past die castle 
known as Casale del Pazzi (once used as a lunatic asylum) 
and the picturesque tomb called Torre Nomentana, — ^as far 
as the sev^enth milestone — we reach the remains of the un- 
buried Basilica of S. Alessandro, built on the site of the 
place where that pope suffered martyrdom with his com- 
panions Eventius and Theodulus, a.d. 119, and was buried 
on the same spot by the Christian matron Severina.* The 
plan of the basilica, disinterred 1856-7, is still quite perfect. 
The tribune and high altar retain fragments of rich marbles 
and alabasters ; the episcopal throne also remains in its 
place. 

The " Acts of the martyrs Alexander, Eventius, and Theo- 
dulus," narrate that Severina buried the bodies of the first 
two martyrs in one tomb, and the third separately — " Theo- 
dulum vero alibi sepelivit." This is borne out by the dis- 
covery of a chapel opening from the nave, where the single 
word '^martyri," is supposed to point out the grave of 
Theodulus. A baptistery has been found with its font, and 
another chapel adjoining is pointed out as the place where 
neophytes assembled to receive confirmation from the 
bishop. Among epitaphs laid bare in the pavement is one 
to a youth named Apollo *' votus Deo " (dedicated to the 
priesthood?) at the age of 14. Entered from the church is 
the catacomb called " ad nymphas," containing many ancient 
inscriptions and a few rude paintings. 

Mass is solemnly performed here by the Cardinal Prefect 
of the Propaganda on the festival of St. Alexander, May 3, 
when the roofless basilica, backed by the blue Sabine moun- 
tains and surrounded by the utterly desolate Campagna — is 
filled with worshippers, and presents a striking scene. Be- 
yond thi*5 a road to the left leads through beautiful woods to 
Mentana, occupying the site of the ancient Nomentum, and 
recently celebrated for the battle between the papal troops 
and the Garibaldians on Nov. 3, 1867. The conflict took 
place chiefly on the hillside which is passed on the right 
before reaching the town. Two miles further is Monte Ro- 
tondo, with a fine old castle of the Barberini family (once of 

* The bodies were removed to Sta. Sabina in the fifth century by Celcstine I. 



350 WALKS IN ROME. 

the Orsini) from which there is a beautiful view. This place 
was also the scene of fighting in 1867. It is possible to vtry 
the route in returning to Rome from hence by the lowei 
road which leads by the (now broken) Ponte Salara. 



If we re-enter Rome by the Porta Pia, immediately within 
the gates we find another Villa belonging to the Torlonia 
family. The straight road from the gate leads by the Termini 
to the Quattro Fontane and the Monte Cavallo. On the left, 
if we follow the Via de Macao., which takes its strange name 
from a gift of land which the princes of Savoy made to the 
Jesuits for a mission in China, we reach a small piazza with 
two pines, where a gate on the left leads to the remains of 
the Pretorian Camp^ established by Sejanus, the minister of 
Tiberius. It was dismantled by Constantine, but from three 
sides having been enclosed by Aurelian in the line of his city- 
wall, its form is still preserved to us. The Pretorian Camp 
was an oblong of 1200 by 1500 feet; its area was occupied 
by a vineyard of the Jesuits till 1861, when a " Campo Mili- 
tare " was again established here, for the pontifical troops. 

" En suivant I'enceinte de Rome, quand on arrive a Tendroit ou elle 
se continue par le mur du Camp des pretoriens, on est frappe de la 
superiorite de construction que presente celui-ci. La partie des niurs 
d'Honorius qui est voisine a ete refaite au huitieme siecle. I.e com- 
mencement et la fin de I'empire se touchent. On pent apprecier d'lui 
coup d'oeil I'etat de la civilisation aux deux epoques : voila ce qu'oii 
faisait dans le premier siecle, et voila ce qu'on faisait au huitieme, 
apres la conquete de I'empire Romain par les Earbares. II faut song<r 
toutefois que cette epoque oil Ton construisait si bien a amene celle uii 
Ton ne savait plus construire." — Ampere^ ET)ip. i. 421. 

Hence a road, three-quarters of a mile long, leads-— 
passing under an arch of Sixtus V. — to the Porta S. Lorenzo 
(Ch. XIII.). 

The road opposite the gateway leading to the Camp is 
bordered on the left by the buildings belonging to the Rail- 
way Station., beyond which is the entrance to the grounds 
of the Villa Massiffio Negroni (always accessible without 
an order), possessing a delightful terrace, fringed with orange- 
trees — which is a most agreeable sunny walk in winter — and 
many pleasant shady nooks and corners for summer. In 
a i)art of this villa cut off by the railway but still visible from 
hence, is a colossal statue of Minerva (generally called 
*' Rome "), which is a relic of the residence here of Cardinal 



VILLA MASSIMO NEGRONL 351 

Felix Perretti, who as a boy had watched the pigs of his 
father at Montalto, and who hved to mount the papal throne 
as Sixtus V. The pedestal of the statue bears his arms, 
— a lion holding three pears in its paw. Here, with her 
husband's uncle, lived the famous Vittoria Accoramboni, the 
wife of the handsome Francesco Perretti, who had been 
vainly sought in marriage by the powerful and ugly old Prince 
Paolo Orsini. It was from hence that her young husband 
was summoned to a secret interview with her brothers on 
the slopes of the Quirinal, where he was cruelly murdered 
by the hired bravos of her first lover. Hence also Vittoria 
went forth — on the very day of the installation of Sixtus V. — 
to her strange second marriage with the murderer of her 
husband, who died six months after, leaving her with one of 
the largest fortunes in Italy — an amount of wealth which 
led to her own barbarous murder through the jealousy of 
the Orsini a month afterwards. 

Here, after the election of her brother to the papacy, lived 
Camilla, the sister of Sixtus V., whom he refused to recog- 
nise when she came to him in splendid attire as a princess, 
but tenderly embraced when she reappeared in her peasant's 
wimple and hood. From hence her two granddaughters 
were married, — one to Virginius Orsini, the other to Marc- 
Antonio Colonna, an alliance which healed the feud of 
centuries between the two families. 

In later times the Villa Negroni was the residence of the 
poet Alfieri. 

The principal terrace ends near a reservoir which belonged 
to the baths of Diocletian. 

"As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, one cannot fail to 
be impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city 
has passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist, 
fiddled while Rome was burning, has now become a vast kitchen-garden, 
belonging to Prince Massimo (himself a descendant, as he claims, of 
Fabius Cunctator), where men no longer, but only lettuces, asparagus, 
and artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The inundations are not for 
mock sea-fights among slaves, but for the peaceful purposes of irriga- 
tion. In the bottom of the valley, a noble old villa, covered with 
frescoes, has been turned into a manufactory for bricks, and part of 
the Villa Negroni itself is now occupied by the railway station. Yet 
here the princely family of Negroni lived, and the very lady at whose 
house Lucrczia Borgia took her lamous revenge may once have sauntered 
under the walls, which still glow with ripening oranges, to feed the gold 
fish in the fountain, — or walked with stately friends through the long 



352 WALKS IN ROME. 

alleys of clipped cypresses, or pic-nicked alia Giomata on lawns which 
are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San Cavolo."— ^/wj''j- Ro!>a 
di Roma. 

The lower part of the Villa Negroni, and the slopes 
towards the EsquiHne, were once celebrated as the Campus 
Esquilifms, a large pauper burial-ground, where bodies were 
thrown into pits called piiticoli,^ as is still the custom at 
Naples. There were also tombs here of a somewhat pre- 
tentious character : " those probably of rich well-to-do 
burgesses, yet not great enough to command the posthum- 
ous honour of a roadside mausoleum." t Horace dwells 
on the horrors of this burial-ground, where he places the 
scene of Canidia's incantations : — 

" Nee in sepulcris pauperum prudens anus 
Novemdiales dissipare pulveres." 

Epod. xvii. 47 
" Has nullo perdere possum 
Nee prohibere modo, simul ac vaga luna decorum 
Protulit OS, quin ossa legant, herbasque nocentes. 
Vidi egomet nigra succinctam vadere palla 
Canidiam, pedibus nudis passoque capillo, 
Cum Sagana majore ululantem ; pallor utrasque 
P'ecerat horrendas aspectu, 

* * . * * 

Serpentes atque videres 
Inferaas errare canes ; lunamque rubentem, 
Ne foret his testis, post magna latere sepulcra." 

Hor. Sat. i. 8. 

The place was considered very unhealthy until its puri- 
fication by Maecenas. 

" Hue prius angustis ejecta cadavera cellis 

Conservus vili portanda locabat in area. 

Hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulcrum, 

Pantolabo scurrse, Nomentanoque nepoti. 

Mille pedes in fronte, trecentos cippus in agrura 

Hie dabat ; heredes monumentum ne sequeretur. 

Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque 

Aggere in aprico spatiari ; quo modo tristes 

Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum." 

Hor. Sat. i. 8. 
*' Post insepulta membra different lupi, 

Et Esquilin^E alites." 

Hor. Ep. V. loo, 

** The Campus Esquilinus, between the roads which issued from the 

♦ Cramer's Ancient Italy, i. 389. 
t Cic. Phil. ix. 7. Sec Dyer's Rome, p. 215. 



BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN. 353 

Esquiline and Viminal gates, was the spot assigned for casting out the 
carcases of slaves, whose foul and half-burnt remains were hardly 
hidden from the vultures. The accursed field was enclosed, it would 
appear, neither by wall nor fence, to exclude the wandering steps of 
man or beast ; and from the public walk on the summit of the ridge, it 
must have been viewed in all its horrors. Here prowled in troops the 
houseless dogs of the city and the suburbs ; here skulked the solitary 
wolf fron^the Alban hills, and here perhaps, to the doleful murmui-s of 
the Marsic chaunt, the sorceress compounded her philtres of the ashes 
of dead men's bones. Maecenas (B.C. 7) deserved the gratitude of the 
citizens, when he obtained a grant of this piece of land, and transformed 
it into a park or garden. . . . The Campus Esquilinus is now 
part of the gardens of the Villa Negroni." — Merivale, Romans under the 
Empire. 

Within what were th.e grounds of the Villa Negroni until 
they were encroached upon by the railway, but now only to 
be visited with a " lascia passare " from the station master, 
are some of the best remains of the Agger of Sennits Tulliiis. 
In 1869 — 70, some curious painted chambers were dis- 
covered here, but were soon destroyed, — and the foolish 
jealousy of the authorities prevented any drawings or photo- 
graphs being taken. The Agger can be traced from the 
Porta EsquiHna (near the Arch of Gallienus), to the Porta 
Collina (near the Gardens of Sallust). In the time of the 
empire it had become a kind of promenade, as we learn 
from Horace.* 

Opposite the station are the vast, but for the most part 
uninteresting, remains of the Baths of Diocletian., covering a 
space of 440,000 square yards. They were begun by 
Diocletian and Maximian, about a.d. 302, and finished by 
Constantius and Maximinus. It is stated by Cardinal 
Baronius, that 40,000 Christians were employed in the 
work ; some bricks marked with crosses have been found 
in the ruins. At the angles of the principal front were two 
circular halls, both of which remain ; one is near the modern 
Villa Strozzi, at the back of the Negroni garden, and is now 
used as a granary, the other is transformed into the Church 
of S. Bernardo. 

The Baths are supposed to have first fallen into decay 
after the Gothic invasion of a.d. 410. In the sixteenth 
century the site was sold to Cardinal Bella, ambassador 
of Francis I. at Rome, who built a fine palace among the 
ruins j after his death, in 1560, the property was re-sold 

* Sat i. 8, 15. 



354 WALKS IN ROME. 

to S. Carlo BoiTomeo. He sold it again to his uncle, Pope 
Pius IV., Avho founded the monastery of Carthusian monks. 
These, in 1593, sold part of the ruins to Caterina Sforza, 
who founded the Cistercian convent of S. Bernardo. 

About 1520, a Sicilian priest called Antonio del Duca 
came to Rome, bringing with him from Palermo pictures of 
the seven archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, 
Santhiel, Gendiel, and Borachiel), copied from some which 
existed in the Church of S. Angiolo. Carried away by the 
desire of instituting archangel-worship at Rome, he obtained 
leave to aftix these pictures to seven of the columns still 
standing erect in the Baths of Diocletian, which, ten years 
after, Julius II. allowed to be consecrated under the title of 
Sta. Maria degli Angeli; though Pius IV., declaring that angel- 
worship had never been sanctioned by the Church, except 
under the three names mentioned in Scripture, ordered the 
pictures of Del Duca to be taken away. * At the same time 
he engaged Michael Angelo to convert the great oblong 
hall of the Baths (Calidarium) into a church. The church 
then arranged was not such as we now see, the present 
entrance having been then the atrium of the side chapel, 
and the main entrance at first by what is now the right 
transept, while the high altar stood in what is now the left 
transept. In 1749, the desire of erecting a chapel to the 
Beato Nicolo Albergati, led to the church being altered, 
under Vanvitelli, as we now see it. 

The Church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli, still most mag- 
nificent, is now entered by a rotunda (Laconicum) which 
contains four monuments of some interest ; on the right of 
the entrance is that of the artist Carlo Maratta, who died 
1 7 13; on the left that of Salvator Rosa, who died 1673, 
with an epitaph by his son, describing him as " Pictorum 
sui temporis nulli secundum, poetarum omnium temporum 
principibus parem ! " Beyond, on the right, is the monu- 
ment of Cardinal Alciati, professor of law at Milan, who 
procured his hat through the interest of S. Carlo Borromeo, 
with the epitaph " Virtute vixit, memoria vivit, gloria vivet," 
— on the left, that of Cardinal Parisio di Corenza, inscribed, 
" Corpus humo tegitur, fama per ora volat, spiritus astra 
tenet." In the chapel on the right are the angels of Peace 
and Justice, by Pettrich ; in that on the left Christ appearing 

* See Heman»' Catholic Italy, P;irt I. 



STA. MARIA DEGLI ANGELL 355 

to the Magdalen, by Arrigo Flamingo. Against the pier on 
the right is the grand statue of S. Bruno, by ffoudon, of which 
Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) used to say, " He would speak, 
if the rule of his Order did not forbid it." 

The body of the church is now a perfect gallery of very 
large pictures, most of which were brought from St. Peter's, 
where their places have been supplied by mosaic copies. 
In what is now the right transept, on the right, is the Cruci- 
fixion of St. Peter, Riccioliiii ; the Fall of Simon Magus, a 
copy of Fra7icesco Vaimi (the original in St. Peter's) ; on the 
left, St. Jerome, with St. Bruno and St. Francis, Muzia?w 
(1528 — 92) (the landscape by Brill); and the Miracles of 
St. Peter, Baglioni. This transept ends in the chapel of the 
Beato Nicolo Albergati, a Carthusian Cardinal, who was 
sent as legate by Martin V., in 1422, to make a reconciliation 
between Charles VI. of France and Henry V. of England. 
The principal miracle ascribed to him, the conversion of bread 
into coal in order to convince the Emperor of Germany 
of his divine authority, is represented in the indifferent 
altar-piece. In the left transept, which ends in the chapel 
of S. Bruno, are : on the left, St. Basil by the solemnity of 
the Mass rebuking the Emperor Valens, Subleyras ; and the 
Fall of Simon Magus, Pompeo Battofii ; — on the right, the 
Immaculate Conception, P. Bianchi; and Tabitha raised 
from the Dead, P. Cosfanzi. 

In the tribune are, on the right, the Presentation of the 
Virgin in the Temple, Romanelli; and the Martyrdom of St. 
Sebastian, a grand fresco of Domenichino, painted originally 
on the walls of St. Peter's, and removed here with great skill 
by the engineer Zabaglia ; — on the left, the Death of Ana- 
nias and Sapphira, Fomaraficio ; and the Baptism of Christ, 
Maratta. 

On the right of the choir is the tomb of Cardinal Antonio 
Serbelloni ; on. the left that of Pius IV., Giovanni Angelo 
Medici (1559 — 1565), under whose reign the Council of 
Trent was closed, — uncle of S. Carlo Borromeo, a lively and 
mundane pope, but the cruel persecutor of the Caraffa 
nephews of his predecessor, Paul IV., whom he executed in 
the Castle of S. Angelo. 

Of the sixteen columns in this church (45 feet in height, 
16 feet in diameter), only the eight in the transept are of 
ancient Egyptian granite j the rest are in brick, stuccoed in 



356 WALA^S IX ROME. 

imitation, and were additions of Vanvitelli. On the pavement 
is a meridian line, laid down in 1703. 

" Quand Diocletien faisait travailler les pauvres chretiens a ses etuves, 
ce n'etait pas son dessein de batir des eglises a leurs successeurs ; il ne 
pensait pas etre fondateur, comme il I'a ete, d'lin monastere de Peres 
Chartreux et d'un monastere de Peres Feuillants. . . . C'est aux depens 
de Diocletien, de ses pierres et de son ciment qu'on fait des autels et 
des chapelles a Jesus-Christ, des dortoirs et des refectoires a ses servi- 
teurs. La providence de Dieu se joue de cette' sorte des pensees des 
hommes, et les evenements sont bien eloignes des intentions quand la 
terre a un dessein et le ciel un autre." — Balzac. 

The Carthusian convent behind the church (ladies are not 
admitted) contains several picturesque fountains. That in 
the great cloister, built from designs of Michael Angelo, is 
surrounded by a group of huge and grand cypresses, said to 
have been planted by his hand. 

"11 semble que la vienesertici qu'a contempler la mort— les hommes 
qui existent ainsi sont pourtant les memes a qui la guerre et toute son 
activite sufifirait a peine s'ils y etaient accoutumes. C'est un sujet 
inepuisable de reflexion que les diflerentes combinaisons de la destinee 
humaine sur la terre. II se passe dans I'interieur de Fame mille acci- 
dents, il se forme mille habitudes, qui font dechaqueindividuunmonde 
et son histoire. " — Madame de Stael.. 

On a line with the monastery is a Prison for Women — 
then an Institution for Deaf, Dumb, and Blind — then the 
ugly Foimtain of the Tcrmiiii (designed by Fontana), some- 
times called Fontanone dell' Acqua FeUce, (FeUce, from Fra 
Felice, the name by which Sixtus V. was known before his 
papacy,) to which the Acqua FeHce was brought fromColonna 
22 miles distant in the Alban hills, in 1583, by Sixtus V. 
It is surmounted by a hideous statue of Moses by Prospero 
Bresciano, who is said to have died of vexation at the 
ridicule it excited when uncovered. The side statues, of 
Aaron and Gideon, are by Giov. Batt. dclla Porta and 
Flanmiio Vacca. 

Opposite this, in the Via della Porta Pia, is the Church of 
Sta. Maria della Vittoria, built in 1605, by Carlo Mademo, 
for Paul V. Its fagade was added from designs of Giov. 
Batt. Soria, by Cardinal Borghese, in payment to the monks 
of the adjoining Cannelite convent, for the statue of the 
Hermaphrodite, which had been found in their vineyard. 

The name of the church commemorates an image of the 
Virgin, burnt in 18;^ 3, which was revered as having been 
instrumental in gaining the victory for the Catholic impe- 



ST A. MARIA DELL A VITTORIA, 357 

rial troops over the Protestant Frederick and Elizabeth 
of Bohemia, at the battle of the White Mountain, near 
Prague, The third chapel on the left contains the Trinity, by 
Guercino; a Crucifixion, by Guido; and a portrait of Cardinal 
Cornaro, Guido. The altar-piece of the second chapel on 
the right, representing St. Francis receiving the Infant Christ 
from the Virgin, is by Domenichino, as are two frescoes on 
the side walls. In the left transept, above an altar adorned 
with a gilt bronze-relief of the Last Supper, by Cav. d'Arpino, 
is a group representing Sta. Teresa transfixed by the dart of 
the Angel of Death, by Bernini. The following criticisms 
upon it are fair specimens of the contrast between English 
and French taste. 

'* All the Spanish pictures of Sta. Theresa sin in their materialism ; 
but the grossest example — the most offensive — is the marble group of 
Bernini, in the Santa Maria della Vittoria at Rome. The head of Sta. 
Theresa is that of a languishing nymph, the angel is a sort of Eros ; 
the whole has been significantly described as ' a parody of Divine love.' 
The vehicle, white marble, — its place in a Christian church, — enhance 
all its vileness. The least destructive, the least prudish in matters of 
art, would here willingly throw the first stone." — Tl/rj. Jameson's 
Mojiastic Orders, p. 421. 

" La sainte Therese de Bemin est adorable ! couchee, evanouie 
d'amour. les mains, les pieds nus pendants, les yeux demiclos, elle s'est 
laissee tomber de bonheur et d'extase. Son visage est maigri, mais 
combien noble ! C'est la vraie grande dame qui a seche dans les feux, 
dans les larmes, en attendant celui qu'elle aime. Jusqu'aux draperies 
tortillees, jusqu'a I'allanguissement des mains defaillantes, jusqu'au 
soupir qui meurt sur ses levres entr ouvertes, il n'y a rien en elle ni 
autour d'elle qui n'exprime I'angoisse volupteuse et le divin elancement 
de son transport. On ne peut pas rendre avec des mots une attitude si 
enivree et si touchante. Renversee sur le dos, elle pame, tout son etre 
se dissout ; le moment poignant arrive, elle gemit ; c'est son dernier 
gemissement, la sensation est trop forte. L'ange cependant, un jeune 
page de quatorze ans, en l^gere tunique, la poitrine decouverte jusqu'au 
dessous du sein, arrive gracieux, aimable ; c'est le plus joli page de 
grand seigneur qui vient faire le bonheur d'une vassal trop tendre. 
Un sourire demi-complaisant, demi-malin, creuse des fossettes dans ses 
fraiches joues luisantes ; sa fleche d'or a la main indique le tressaillement 
delicieux et terrible dont il va secouer tons les nerfs de ce corps char- 
mant, ardent, qui s'etale devant sa main. On n'a jamais fait ce roman 
si seduisant et si tendre." — Taine, " Voyage en Italiey 

Close by is the handsome Church of Sta. Susaftfia, rebuilt 
by Carlo Maderfio, for Sixtus V., on the site of an oratory 
founded by Pope Caius (a.d. 283), in the house of his 
brother Gabinus, who was martyred with his daughter 
Susanna because she refused to break her vow of virginity 



358 WALKS IX ROME. 

by a marriage with Alaximianus Galerus, adopted son of the 
Emperor Diocletian, to whom this family were related. The 
bodies of these martyrs are said to rest beneath the high 
altar. The side chapel of St. Laurence was presented by 
Camilla Peretti, the sister of Sixtus V., together with a 
dowry of fifty scudi, to be paid every year to the nine best 
girls in the parish, on the festival of Sta. Susanna. The 
frescoes of the story of Susanna and the Elders, painted 
here on the side walls, from the analogy of names, are 
by Baldassare Croce ; those in the tribune are by Cesare 
Nebbia. 

Opposite this, is the Cistercian convent and Church of S. 
Bernardo, a rotunda of the Baths of Diocletian, turned into a 
church in 1598, by Caterina Sforza, Contessa di Santa Flora. 

Hence the Via della Porta Pia leads to the Quattro 
Fontane. On the left is the small Church of S. Caio, 
which encloses the tomb of that pope, inscribed " Sancti 
Caii, Papae, martyris ossa." Further, on the left, is the great 
convent of the Carmelites, and the Church of Sta. Teresa. 
The right of the street is bordered by the orange-shaded 
wall of the Barberini garden. 

Between S. Caio and Sta. Teresa, is the Studio of Over- 
beck, the venerable German devotional painter, who died 
1869. His daughter allows visitors to be admitted on 
Sunday afternoons. 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE ESQUILINE. 

Golden House of Nero — Baths of Titus and Trajan — S. Pietro in 
Vincoli — Frangipani Tower — House of Lucrezia Borgia — S. 
Martino al Monte — Sta, Lucia in Selce— Sta. Prassede--Santis- 
simo Redentore — Arch of Gallienus — Trophies of Marius — Sta. 
Bibiana — Temple of Minerva Medica — S. Eusebio — S. Antonio 
Abbate — Sta. Maria Maggiore. 

THE ESQUILINE, which is the largest of the so-called 
' hills of Rome,' is not a distinct hill, but simply a 
projection of tlie Campagna. " The Quirinal, Viminal, 



TEMPLES OF THE ESQUILINE. 359 

Esquillne, and Ccelian stretch out towards the Ti'.^er, Hke 
four fingers of a hand, of which the plain whence they 
detach themselves represents the vast palm. This hand 
has seized the world." * 

Varro says that the name Esquiline was derived from the 
word excultus, because of the ornamental groves which were 
planted on this hill by Servius Tullius, — such as the Lucus 
Querquetulanus, Fagu talis, and Esquilinus.t The sacred 
wood of the Argiletum long remained on the lower slope of 
the hill, where the Via Sta. Maria dei Monti now is. 

The Esquiline, which is still unhealthy, must have been 
so in ancient times, for among its temples were those 
dedicated to Fever, near Sta. Maria Maggiore — to Juno 
Mephitis,:}: near a pool which emitted poisonous exhalations 
— and to Venus Libitina,§ for the registration of deaths, and 
arrangement of funerals. As the hill was in the hands of 
the Sabines, its early divinities were Sabine. Besides those 
already mentioned, it had an altar of the Sabine sun-god 
Janus, dedicated together with an altar to Juno by the sur- 
vivor of the Horatii, |1 and a temple of Juno Lucina, the 
goddess of birth and light. 

*' Monte sub Esquilio multis incaeduus annis 
Junonis magnse nomine lucus erat." 

Ovid, Fast, ii, 435, 

This hill has two heights. That which is crowned by 
Santa Maria Maggiore was formerly called Cispius, where 
Servius Tullius had a palace ; that which is occupied by 
S. Pietro in Vincoli was formerly called Oppius, where Tar- 
quinius Superbus lived. It was in returning to his palace on 
the former (and not on the latter height, as generally main- 
tained) that Servius Tullius was murdered. 

The most important buildings of the Esquiline, in the 
later republican and in iriiperial times, were on the slope 
of the hill behind the Forum, and near the Coliseum, in the 
fashionable quarter called Carinse, — the " rich Carina," 

" Passimque armenta videbant 
Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire Carinis." 

Virgil, ALn. viii. 361. 

of which the principal street probably occupied the site 
of the present Via del Colosseo. At the entrance of this 

* AmpSre, Hist. Rom. i. 38. f Varro. de Ling. Lat. iv. 8. 

X Fest. V. Septimone. § Amp<5re, Hist. Rom. i. 65. || Fest. p, 297. 



36o WALKS IN ROME. 

suburb, where the fine mediaeval Torre dei Conti now stands, 
was the house of Spurius Cassius (Consul B.C. 493), which 
was confiscated and demolished, and the ground ordained to 
be always kept vacant, because he was suspected of aiming 
at regal power. Here, however, or very nearly on this site, the 
yEdes Teliuris, or temple of Tellus, was erected^. B.C. 269,* — 
a building of sufficient importance for the senate, sum- 
moned by Antony, to assemble in it. The quarter imme- 
diately surrounding this temple acquired the name of In 
Tel/ure^ which is still retained by several of its modern 
churches.t Near this temple — " in tellure," lived Pompey, 
in a famous though small historical house, which he adorned 
on the outside with rostra in memory of his naval victories, 
and which was painted within to look like a forest with trees 
and birds, much probably as the chambers are painted 
which were discovered a few years ago in the villa of 
Livia.J Here Julia, the daughter of Julius Caesar, and wife 
of Pompey, died. After the death of Pompey this house 
was bought by the luxurious Antony. The difference be- 
tween its two masters is pourtrayed by Cicero, who describes 
the severe comfort of the house of Pompey contrasted with 
the voluptuous luxury of its second master, and winds up his 
oration by exclaiming, " I pity even the roofs and the walls 
under the change." At a later period the same house was 
the favourite residence of Antoninus Pius. Hard by, in the 
Carinae, the favourite residence of Roman knights, lived the 
father of Cicero, and hence the young Tullius went to 
listen in the forum to the orators whom he was one day to 
surpass. § Also in the Carinae, but nearer the site of the 
Coliseum, was the magnificent house of the wealthy Vedius 
Pollio, which he bequeathed to Augustus, who pulled it 
dowai, and built the portico of Livia on its site : 

** Disce tanien, veniens aetas, ubi Livia nunc est 
Porticus, immensae tecta fuisse domus. 
Urbis opus donuis una fuit ; spatiumque tenebat, ^ 

Quo brevius muris oppida multa tenent. 
Haec aequata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni, 

Sed quia luxuria visa nocere sua. 
Sustinuit tantas operum subvertere moles, 
Totque suas heres perdeie Caesar opes." 

Ovid^ Fast. vi. 639. 

* Cicero pro doma sua, 38 : Dionysius, viii. 79 ; Livy, ii. 41. 

t See Dyer's City of Rome, p. 65. The Acts of the Martyrs mention that 
several Christians suffered " In tellure. ' 

X See Ampere, Hisi. Rom. iv. 421. § See Ampere, Hist. Rom. iv. 431. 



THE CARINAi AND THE SUBURRa. 361 

At its opposite extremity the Carinse was united to the 
unfashionable and plebeian quarter of the Suburra, occupy- 
ing the valley formed by the convergence of the Esquiline, 
Quirinal, and Viminal — which is still crowded with a teeming 
population. In one of the small streets leading from the 
Vicus Cyprius (between the Esquiline and Viminal) towards 
the Carinae, was the Tigellum Sororis, which was extant — 
repaired at the public expense — till the fifth century. This, 
" the Sister's Beam," commemorated the well-known story of 
the last of the Horatii, who, returning from the slaughter of 
the Curiatii, and being met by his sister, bewailing one of 
the dead to whom she was betrothed, stabbed her in his 
anger. He was condemned to death, but at the prayer of 
his father his crime was expiated by his passing under the 
yoke of " the Sister's Beam." On one side of the Tigellum 
Sororis was an altar to Juno Sororis ; on the other an altar 
to Janus Curiatius.* 

During the empire several poets had their residence on 
the Esquihne. Virgil lived there, near the gardens of 
Maecenas, which covered the slopes between the Esquiline 
and Viminal. Propertius had a house there, as we learn 
from himself — 

*' I, puer, et citus hsec aliqua propone columna 
Et dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare timm." 

Propert. Eleg. iv. 23. 

It is believed, but without certainty, that Horace also 
lived upon the Esquiline. He was constantly there in the 
villa of Maecenas, where he was buried, and which he has 
described in his poems both in its original state as a dese- 
crated cemetery, and again after his friend had converted it 
into a beautiful garden. 

*■'■ Nunc licet Esquiiiis habitare salubribus, atque 
Aggere in aprico spatiari, quo mode tristes 
Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum." 

Sat i. 

The house of Maecenas, the great patron of the poets of 
the ^ Augustan age, probably occupied a site above the 
Jarinae, where the baths of Titus afterwards were. It was a 
lofty and magnificent edifice, and is described by Horace, 
who calls it — 

. * Liv. i. 26 ; Dionysius, iii. 22. 



362 WALKS AV ROME. 

** Fastidiosam aesere copiam, et 

Molem propinquam nubibus arduis : 
Omitte mirari beatse 

Fumum et opes strepitumque Romae." 

Od. iii. 29. 

Maecenas bequeathed his villa to Augustus, and Tiberius 
at one time resided in it. 

Another, though less well-known poet of this age, who 
lived upon the Esquiline, was Pedo Albinovanus, much 
extolled by Ovid, who lived at the summit of the Vicus 
Cyprius (probably the Via Sta. Maria Maggiore), in a little 
house : 

*' Illic parva tui domus Pedonis 

Caslata est aquilae minore penna." 

Mai'tial, x. Ep. 19. 

Near this was the Lacus Orphci^ a fountain, in the centre 
of which was a rock, &c., surmounted by a statue of Orpheus 
wdth the enchanted beasts around him. The house of Pedo 
was afterwards inhabited by Pliny, On Septimius, as the 
furthest slope of the Esquiline towards the Viminal was 
called, lived Maximus — of whom Martial says : — • 

" Esquiliis domus est, domus est tibi colle Dianae, 
Et tua Patricius culmina Vicus habet : 
Hinc viduse Cybeles, illinc sacraria Vestse, 
Inde Novum, Veterem prospicis inde Jovem." 

Mart. vii. Ep. 72. 

Only the northern side of the Esquiline is now inhabited 
at all ; the southern, and by far the larger portion, is clothed 
with vineyards and gardens, sprinkled over with titanic 
masses of ruin. On most parts of the hill, one might imagine 
oneself far away in the country. According to Niebuhr, the 
dweller amid the vines of the Esquiline, when he descends 
into the city, still says, " I am going to Rome." 



Nero (a.d. 54 — 68) purchased the site of the villa of 
Maecenas, and covered the whole side of the hill towards 
the Carinas with the vast buildings of his Golden House, 
which also swallowed up the Coelian and a great part of the 
Palatine ; but he did not destroy the buildings which already 
existed, and " the Golden House was still the old mansion 
of Augustus and the villa of Maecenas connected by a long. 



BATHS OF TITUS. 363 

series of columns and arches."* Titus (a.d. 79 — 81) and 
Trajan (a.d. 98 — 117) used part of the same site for their 
baths, and the ruins of all these buildings are now jumbled 
up together, and the varying whims of antiquaries have 
constantly changed the names of each fragment that has 
been discovered. 

The more interesting of these ruins are on the southern 
slope of the Esquiline towards the Coliseum, and are most 
easily approached from the Via Polveriera. They are 
shown now as the Baths of Titus, or Camere Esquiline, and 
occupy a space of about 11 50 feet by 850. That the 
chambers which are now visible were to be seen in the time 
of Leo X. (1513 — 22) we learn from Vasari, who says that 
Raphael and Giovanni da Udine were wont to study there 
and copy the arabesques to assist their work in the 
Vatican Loggie. After this, neglect and the falling in of 
the soil caused these treasures to be lost till 1774, when 
they were again partially unearthed, but they were only 
completely brought to view by the French, who began to 
take the work in hand in 181 1, and continued their excava- 
tions for three years. 

The principal remains, which are now exhibited by the 
dim torch of a solitary cicerone, are those of nine chambers, 
extending for 300 feet, and having on the north a kind of 
corridor, or cryptoporticus, whose vault is covered with 
paintings of birds, griffins, and flowers, &c. In two of these 
hails are alcoves for couches, and in one is a cavity for a foun- 
tain with a trench round it, like that in the nymphaeum of the 
Palace of the Caesars. In one of the halls is a group repre- 
senting Venus attended by two Cupids, with doves hovering 
over her. Near this a pedestal is shown as that occupied by 
the Laocoon, though it was really found in the Vigna de' 
Fredis, between the Sette Sale and Sta. Maria Maggiore. A 
set of thirty engravings, published by Mirri, from drawings 
taken in 1776, show what the paintings were at that time, but 
very few now remain perfect. A group of Coriolanus and his 
mother, represented in Mirri's work, is now inaccessible. All 
the paintings are Pompeian in character, and for some time 
v/ere considered the best remains of ancient pictorial art in 
Rome, but they are inferior to those which have since been 
discovered on the Latin way and at the Baths of Livia. The 

* Merivale, Romans under the Empire, ch. liii. 

2 B 



364 WALKS IN ROME. 

chambers which open beyond the nine outer halls are con- 
sidered to be part of the Golden House. In one of these 
the Meleager of the Vatican was found. A small chapel, 
dedicated to Sta. Felicitas and her seven sons (evidently 
engrafted upon the pagan building in the sixth century), was 
discovered in 18 13. It is like the chapels in the catacombs, 
and is decorated with the conventional frescoes of the Good 
Shepherd, Daniel in the lions' den, &c. There are also 
some faint remains of a fresco of the sainted patrons. 

Behind the convent of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in the open 
vineyards, are other ruins called the Sette Sale, being 
remains of the reservoirs (in reality nine in number) for the 
Baths. In these vineyards also are three large circular ruins, 
adorned on the interior with rows of niches for statues. One 
of them is partly built into the Polveriera, or powder maga- 
zine. These have been referred alternately to the Baths of 
Titus and those of Trajan. 



Immediately behind the forum of Nerva stands the colossal 
brick tower, known as the Torre dei Conti, and built by 
Innocent III. (1198 — 1216) as a retreat for his family, now 
extinct. Its architect was Marchione d'Arezzo, and it was 
so much admired by Petrarch that he declared it had " no 
equal upon earth ; " he must have meant in height. Four 
of the Conti have mounted the papal throne, Innocent III., 
Gregory IX., Alexander IV., and Innocent XIII. The last- 
named pope (1721 — 24) boasted of having " nine uncles, 
eight brothers, four nephews, and seven great nephews ;" 
yet — a century after — and not a Conti remamed. 

If we turn to the left close to this, we shall find, in a 
commanding position, the famous Church of S. Pietro in 
Vinco/i, said to have been originally founded in a.d. 109 by 
Theodora, sister of Hermes, Prefect of Rome, both converts 
of the then pope, who was the martyr St. Alexander of 
the basilica in the Campagna. A bolder legend attributes 
the foundation to St. Peter hmiself, who is believed to have 
dedicated this church to his Divine Master. History, how- 
ever, can assign no earlier foundation than that in 442, by 
the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., from whom 
the church takes its name of the Eudoxian Basilica, and 
who placed there one of the famous chains which now form 
its great attraction to Roman Catholic pilgrims. 



S. PIETRO IN VINCOLI. 365 

*'The chains, left in the Mamertine Prisons after St. Peter's confine- 
ment there, are said to have been found by the martyr Sta. Balbina, 
in 126, and by her given to Theodora, another sainted martyr, sister to 
Hermes, Prefect of Rome, from whom they passed into the hands 
of St, Alexander, first pope of that name, and were finally deposited 
by him in the church erected by Theodora, where they have since 
remained. Such is the legendary, but the historic origin of this 
basilica cannot be traced higher than about the middle of the fifth 
century, subsequent to the year 439, when Juvenal, Bishop of 
Jerusalem, presented to the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Theodosius the 
younger, two chains, believed to be those of St. Peter, one of which 
was placed by her in the basilica of the apostles at (^Constantinople, 
and the other sent to Rome for her daughter Eudoxia, wife offfValen- 
tinian III., who caused this church, hence called Eudoxian, to be 
erected, as the special shrine of Peter's chains." — Hemans. 

One chain had been sent to Rome by Eudoxia the elder, 
and the other remained at Constantinople, but the Romans 
could not rest satisfied with the possession of half the reHc ; 
and within the walls of this very basilica, Leo I. beheld in a 
vision the miraculous and mystical uniting of the two chains, 
since which they have both been exhibited here, and the day 
of their being soldered together by invisible power, August i, 
has been kept sacred in the Latin Church ! 

The church is at present entered by an ugly atrium, which 
was the work of Fontana in 1705 : but Bacio Pintelli had 
already done almost all that was possible to destroy the 
features of the old basilica, under the Cardinal Titular of 
the church, Giulio della Rovere, the same who, as Pope 
Julius IL, destroyed the old St. Peter's and eighty-seven 
tombs of his predecessors. By Pintelli the present capitals 
were added to the columns in the nave, and the horizontal 
architrave above them was exchanged for a series of narrow 
round-headed arches. 

But, in spite of alterations, the interior is still imposing. 
Two long lines of ancient fluted Doric columns (ten on each 
side), relics of the Baths of Titus or Trajan^ which once 
covered this site, lead the eye to the high altar, supposed 
to cover the remains of the seven Maccabean brothers, 
and to the tribune, which contains an ancient episcopal 
throne, and is adorned with frescoes by Jacopo Coppi, a 
Florentine of the sixteenth century, illustrative of the life 
of St. Peter. Beneath these is the tomb of G. Clovis, a 
miniature painter of the sixteenth century, and canon of this 
church. 



366 WALKS IN ROME. 

On the left of the entrance is the tomb of Antonio Polla- 
juolo, the famous worker in bronze, and his brother Pietro. 
The fresco above, which is ascribed to Pollajuolo, refers to 
the translation of the body of St. Sebastian, as " Depulsor 
Pestilitatis," from the catacombs to this church, — one of 
the most picturesque stories of the middle ages. The 
great plague of a.d. 680 was ushered in by an awful vision 
of the two angels of good and evil, who wandered through 
the streets by night, side by side, when the one smote upon 
the door where death was to enter, unless arrested by the 
other. The people continued to die by hundreds daily. At 
length a citizen dreamt that the sickness would cease when 
the body of St. Sebastian should be brought into the city, 
and when this was done, the pestilence was stayed. In the 
fresco the whole story is told. In the background the citizen 
tells his dream to Pope Agatho, who is seated among his 
cardinals. On the right the angels of good and evil (the bad 
angel represented as a devil) are making their mysterious 
visitation, on the left a procession is bringing in the relics, 
and the foreground is strewn with the corpses of the dead. 
The general invocation of St. Sebastian in Italy, and the 
frequent introduction of his figure in art, have their origin 
in this story. 

At the entrance of the left aisle is a fine bas-relief of St. 
Peter throned, delivering his keys to an angel, who acknow- 
ledges his supremacy by receiving them on his knees. This 
work was executed in 1465, and serves as a monument to 
the Cardinal de Cusa, Bishop of Brixen, whose incised 
gravestone lies beneath. 

Over the second altar is a most interesting mosaic of 680, 
representing, in old age, the St. Sebastian whom we are 
accustomed to see as a beautiful youth, wounded with 
arrows, — which he survived : — 

"A single figure in mosaic exists as an altar-piece in S. Pietro in 
Vincoli. It is intended for St. Sebastian, who was removed to the 
church by Pope Agathon, on occasion of the plague in 680, and doubt- 
less executed soon iiftcr this date. As a specimen of its kind it is very 
remarkable. There is no analogy between this figure and the usual 
youthful type of St. Sel)astian which was subsequently adopted. On 
the contrary, the saint is represented here as an old man with white hair 
and beard, carrying th.e crown of martyrdom in his hand, and dressed 
from head to foot in true Byzantine style. In his countenance there is 
still some life and dignity. The more careful shadowing also of the 
drapery shows that, in a work intended to be so much exposed to the 



S. PIETRO IN VINCULL 367 

gaze of the pious, move pains were bestowed than usual ; nevertheless, 
the figure, upon the whole, is very inanimate ; the ground is blue." — ■ 
Kugler. 

The first altar in the right aisle has a picture of St. Augus- 
tine by Guercino ; then come tombs of Cardinals Margotti 
and Agucci, from designs of Do?nenichino, who has intro- 
duced a portrait of the former in his monument. At the 
end of this aisle is the beautiful picture of St. Margaret and 
the Dragon by Guercino ; the saint is inspired, and display- 
ing no sign of fear, — an earthly impulse only appearing in 
the motion of her hand, which seems pushing back the 
dragon. 

*' St. Margaret was daughter of a priest of Antioch named Theo- 
dosius, and was brought up as a Christian by her nurse, whose sheep she 
watched upon the hills, while meditating upon the mysteries of the 
gospel. The governor of Antioch fell in l-ove with her and wished to 
marry her, but she refused, and declared herself a Christian. Her friends 
thereupon deserted her, and the governor tried to subdue her by sub- 
mitting her to horrible tortures, amid which her faith did not fail. vShe 
was then dragged to a dungeon, where Satan, in the form of a terrible 
dragon, came upon her with his inflamed and hideous mouth wide open, 
and sought to terrify and confound her ; but she held up the cross of the 
Redeemer, and he fled before it. She finally suffered death by decapi- 
tation. Her legend was certainly known in the fifth century: in the 
fourteenth century she was one of the favourite saints, and was specially 
invoked by women against the pains of child-birth. 
" ' Mild Margarete, that was God's maide; 

Maid Margarete, that was so meeke and milde.' " 

See Jameson^ s Sacred and Legendary Art, v. i. 

Here is the glory of the church — the famous Moses of 
Michael Angeio, forming part of the decorations of the un- 
fini.shed monument of Julius II. 

"This pope, whom nature had intended for a conqueror, and destiny 
clothed with the i-obe of a priest, takes his place by the side of the great 
warriors of the sixteenth century, by the side of Charles V., of Francis I., 
of Gonsalvo, of Cortes, of Alba, of Bayard, and of Doria. It is difficult 
to imagine Julius II. murmuring prayers, or saying mass in pontifical 
robes, and performing, in the midst of all those unmanly functions and 
thousand passive forms, the spirit-deadening part which is assigned to 
the popes, "while his soul was on fire with great-hearted designs, and 
while in the music of the psalms he seemed to hear the thunder of 
cannon. He wished to be a prince of the Church ; and with the poh- 
tical instinct of a prince he founded his state in the midst of the most 
difficult wars against France, and unhesitatingly conquered and took 
possession of Bologna, Piacenzaj Parma, Reggio, and Urbino 

The greatest pope since Innocent III., and the creator of a new 
political spirit in the papacy, he wished, as a second Augustus, to 



368 WALKS IN ROME. 

glorify himself and his creation. He took up again the projects of 
Nicholas V. Rome should become his monument. To carry out his 
designs he found the genius of Bramante and Raphael, and, above all, 
that of Michael Angelo, who belonged to him like an organ of his being. 
St. Peter's, of which he laid the foundation-stone, the paintings of the 
Sistine, the loggie of Bramante, the stanze of Raphael, are memorials 
of Julius the Second." — Gregorovms, Grabnialer der Papste. 

Most of all Julius II. sought immortality in his tomb, for 
which the original design was absolutely gigantic. Eighteen 
feet high, and twelve wide, it was intended to contain more 
than forty statues, which were to include Moses, St. Peter 
and St. Paul, Rachel and Leah, and chained figures of the 
Provinces, while those of the Heaven and the Earth were to 
support the sarcophagus of the pope. This project was 
cut short by the death of Julius in 15 13, when only four of 
the statues were finished, and eight designed.* Of those 
which were finished, three statues, the Moses, the Rachel, 
and the Leah, were afterwards used for the existing memorial, 
which was put together under Paul III. by the Duke of 
Urbino, heir of Jufius II. — in this church of which his uncle 
had been a cardinal. 

"The eye does not know where to rest in this the masterpiece of 
sculpture since the time of the Greeks. It seems to be as much an 
incarnation of the genius of Michael Angelo, as a suitable allegory of 
Pope Julius. Like Moses, he was at once lawgiver, priest, and M'arrior. 
The figure is seated in the central niche, with long-flowing beard de- 
scending to the waist, with homed head, and. deep-sunk eyes, which 
blaze, as it were, with the light of the burning bush, with a majesty of 
anger which makes one tremble, as of a passionate being, drunken with 
fire. All that is positive and all that is negative in him is equally 
dreadful. If he were to rise up, it seems as if he -would shout forth 
laws which no human intellect could fathom, and which, instead of 
improving the world, would drive it back into chaos. His voice, like 
that of the gods of Homer, Avould thunder forth in tones too awful for 
the ear of man to support. Yes! there is something infinite which lies 
in the Moses of Michael Angelo. Nor is his countenance softened by 
the twilight of sadness, which is stealing from his forehead overliis eyes. 
It is the same deep sadness which clouded the countenance of Michael 
Angelo himself. But here it is less touching than terrible. The Greeks 
could not have endured a glance from such a Moses, and the artist 

• "Des huit figures CbauchCes il y en a deii.x aiijonrd*hui an musj'e dii Louvre 
(les deux esclaves). Lorsque Michel-Ange eut renoncC A son plan primitif il en fit 
don i Roberto Strozzi. Des mains de Strozzi elles passcrent dans celles de Fran- 
<;ois icr^ et puis dans celles du connCtable de Montmorency, qui les placa i son 
chateau d'licouen, d'od elles sont venues au Louvre. Quatre autres prisoniiiers 
sont places dans la grotte de Buontalenti au jardin du Palais Pitti, ^ Florence. Un 
groupe, reprcsentant une figure virile en terrassant une seconde, se voit aujourd'hui 
dans la jrrande salle del Cinquecento, au Palais vieux de Florence, oil elle fut placi 
par Cosmic i^r. — F . Sabatier. 



ST. PETER'S CHAINS. 369 

would certainly have been blamed, because he had thrown no softening 
touch over his gigantic picture. That which we have is the archetype of 
a terrible and quite unapproachable sublimity. This statue might take 
its place in the cell of a colossal temple, as that of Jupiter Ammon, but 
the tomb where it is placed is so little suited to it, that regarded even 
only as its frame it is too small." — Gregoroviics. 

On either side of the principal figure are niches containing 
Michael Angelo's statues of Rachel and Leah, — emblematic 
of active and contemplative life. Those above, of the Pro- 
phet and the Sibyl, are by Raphael da Montelupo, his best 
pupil ; on the summit is the Madonna with the Infant Jesus 
by Scherano da Settignano. The worst figure of the whole 
is that, by Maso dal Bosco, of the pope himself, who seems 
quite overwhelmed by the grandeur of his companions, and 
who lies upon a pitiful sarcophagus, leaning his head upon 
his hand, and looking down upon the Moses. He is repre- 
sented with the beard which he was the first pope to reintro- 
duce after an interval of many centuries, — and it is said to 
have been from his example that Francis I., Charles V., and 
others, adopted it also. 

After all, Julius II. was not buried here, and the tomb is 
merely commemorative. He rests beneath a plain marble 
slab near his uncle Sixtus IV., in the chapel of the Sacra- 
ment at St. Peters. 

Close to the Moses is the entrance to the chapel in which 
the chains are preserved, behind a bronze screen — the work 
of Pollajuolo. They are of unequal size, owing to many 
fragments of one of them (first whole links, then only filings) 
having been removed in the course of centuries by various 
popes and sent to Christian princes who have been esteemed 
worthy of the favour ! * The longest is about five feet in 
length. At the end of one of them is a collar, which is said 
to have encircled the neck of St. Peter. They are exposed 
on the day of the "station" (the first Monday in Lent) in a 
reliquary presented by Pius IX., adorned with statuettes of 
St. Peter and the angel — to whom he is represented as saying, 
" Ecce nunc scio vere." t On the following day a priest 
gives the chains to be kissed by the pilgrims, and touches 
their foreheads with them, saying, " By the intercession of 

* The wife of Oswy, king of Northumberland, received a golden key containing 
filings of the chains from Pope Vitalianus, in the sixth century, 
t Actsxii. II. 



370 WALKS AV ROME. 

the blessed Apostle Peter, may God preserve you from evil. 
Amen," 

" Peter, therefore, was kept in prison : but prayer was made without 
ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have 
brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two 
soldiers, bound with two chains : and the keepers before the door kept 
the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a 
light shined in the prison : and he smote Peter on the side, and raised 
him up, saying. Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his 
hands." — Acts xii. 5—7. 

Other relics preserved here are portions of the crosses of 
St. Peter and St. Andrew, and the body of Sta. Costanza. 

The sacristy, opening out of this chapel, contains a num- 
ber of pictures, including, very appropriately, the Deliverance 
of St. Peter from Prison, by Domeiiichiiw. Here, till a few 
years ago, was preserved the famous and beautiful small 
picture, known as the Speranza of Gnido. It has lately been 
sold by the monks to an Englishman, and is replaced by a 
copy. 

In this church Hildebrand was crowned pope as Gre- 
gory VII. (1073). Stephen IX. was also proclaimed here 
in 939. The adjoining convent was built from designs of 
Giuliano San Gallo. Its courtyard contains a picturesque 
well (with columns), bearing the arms of Julius II., by 
Simone Mosca. The arcades were decorated in the present i 
century with frescoes by Pietra Camosci., as a votive offering 
for his recovery from cholera, to St. Sebastian, " depulsori 
pestilitatis." 

Opposite S. Pietro in Vincoli is a convent of Maronite 
monks, in whose garden is a tall palm-tree, perhaps the 
finest in Rome. In the view from the portico of the church 
it forms a conspicuous feature, and the combination of the 
old tower, the palm-tree, and the distant capitol, standing 
out against the golden sky of sunset, is one very familiar to 
Roman artists. 

The tall machicolated Tower on the right was once a 
fortress of the Frangipani family, who obtained their glorious 
surname of " bread-breakers " from the generosity which they 
showed in the distribution of food to the poor during a 
famine in the thirteenth century. The tower is now used as 
a belfry to the adjoining Church oi S.Fra?iccsco di Faola, being 
the only mediaeval fortress tower applied to this purpose. 
The adjoining building is known as the House of Lucrczia 



S. MARTINO AL MONTE. 371 

Borgia^ and the balcony over the gateway on the other side 
is pointed out as that in which she used to stand meditating 
on her crimes. Here Caesar Borgia and his unhappy 
brother, the Duke of Gandia, supped with Lucrezia and 
their mother Vanozza, the evening before the murder of the 
duke, of which Caesar was accused by popular belief. It is 
worth while to descend under the low-browed arch from the 
church piazza, and look back upon this lofty house, with its 
steep, dark, winding staircase, — a most picturesque bit of 
street architecture, which looks better the further you de- 
scend. The Via S. Francesco di Paola is considered by 
Ampere''" to have been the place where the house of the 
Horatii and the Tigellum Sororis once stood. 

Following the narrow lane behind S. Pietro, we reach, on 
the left, S. Martitio al Monte, the great church of the Car- 
melites, which, though of uninviting exterior, is of the 
highest interest. It was built in a.d. 500 by S. Symraachus, 
and dedicated to the saints Sylvestro and Martino, on the site 
of an older church founded by St. Sylvester in the time of 
Constantine. After repeated alterations, it was modernised 
in 1650 by P. Filippini, General of the Carmelites. The 
nave is separated from the aisles by twenty-four ancient 
Corinthian columns. The aisles are painted with landscapes 
by Caspar Foussin, having figures introduced by his brother 
Nicholas. The roof is an addition by S. Carlo Borromeo. 

The pillars of different marbles are magnificent, and the 
effect of the raised choir, with winding staircases to the 
crypt below, is highly picturesque. On the walls are frescoes 
by Cavaluccio (ob. 1795), who is buried in the left aisle. 
The collection of incised gravestones deserves attention, they 
comprise those of a knight in mail armour of 1349 ; Cardinal 
Diomede Caraffa, with a curious epitaph ; and various 
generals and remarkable monks of the Caniielite Order. 
Beneath the high altar rest the bodies of Popes Sergius, 
Sylvester, Martin I., Fabian, Stephen I., Soter, Ciriacus, 
Anastasius, and Innocent I., with several saints not papal, 
removed hither from the catacombs. In the curious crypt, 
part of the Baths of Titus, the early Council of Sylvester 
and Constantine was held, as represented in the fresco in 
the left aisle of the upper church. The back of the ancient 
chair of Sylyester still remains, green with age and damp. 

* Hist. Rom. i. 464. 



3/2 JKILA^S IN ROME. 

In the chapel on the left, where St. SylvoBter used to cele- 
brate mass, is an ancient mosaic of the Madonna. In front 
of the papal chair is the grand sepulchral figure o-f a Car- 
melite, who was General of the Order in the time of Sta. 
Teresa. An urn contains the intestines of the " Beato," 
Cardinal Giuseppe-Maria de Tommasis, who died in 1713. 
His body is preserved beneath an altar in the left aisle of 
the upper church, and is dressed in his cardinal's robes. 

"In 1650 was reopened, beneath SS. Martino e Sylvestro, the long- 
forgotten orator}' fonned (according to Anastasius) by Sylvester among 
the halls of Trajan's Thermje — or, more probably, in an antique palace 
adjacent to those imperial baths — and called by Christiijn writers 'Titulus 
Equitii,' from the name of a Roman priest then proprietor of the ground. 
Now a gloomy, time-worn, and sepulchral subterranean, this structure 
is in form an extensive quadrangle, under a high-hung vault, divided 
into four aisles by massive square piers ; the central bay of one aisle 
adonied with a large red cross, painted as if studded with gems ; and 
ranged round this, four books, each within a nimbus, earliest symbolism 
to represent the Evangelists. Among the much-faded and dim-seen 
frescoes on these dusky walls, are figures of the Saviour between SS. 
Peter and Paul, besides other saints, each crowned by a large nimbus." 
— Hemans^ Aiicie7it Sacred Ai'L 

Here i§ presei-\'ed a mitre, probably the mosi ancient 
extant, and said to be that of St. Sylvester, who lived in 
the fourth century, and who was the first Latin bishop to 
wear the mitre originally worn by the priests of pagan tem- 
ples. This ancient mitre is so low as to rise only just above 
the crown of the head. 

This church was dedicated to St. Martin, the holy Bishop 
of Tours, within a hundred years after his death, showing 
the very early veneration with which that saint was re- 
garded. 

Leaving S. Martino by the other door, near the tribune, 
we emerge at the top of the steep street called Sta. Lucia in 
Selci^ which is the same with that described by Martial in 
going to visit the younger Pliny as — • 

"Ahum vincere tramitem Suburnx." 

Lib. X. Ep. 19, 5. 
And again — 

'* Alta Suburrani vincenda est semita clivi." 

Lib. V. Ep. 23, 5. 

Here is a whole group of convents. In the hollow is 
the convent of S. Francesco di Paola, with several others. 
Just above (in the Via Quattro Cantone) is the convent oi 



STA. PRASSEDE. 373 

the Oratorlans, or S. Filippo Neri. At this point also are 
two medigeval towers, one enclosed within the con\ ent walls 
of Sta. Lucia in Selci, the other on the opposite side of the 
street, supposed by some to be the tower of Mecsenas, cele- 
brated by Horace. 

Mounting the street we soon reach, on the right, the pic- 
turesque tenth century west gate (a high narrow arch upon 
Ionic columns) of the Church of Sta. Frassede, which leads 
into the atrium of the church. This is seldom open, but we 
can enter by a door in the north aisle. 

Sta. Prassede was sister of Sta. Pudenziana, and daughter 
of Pudens and his wife Claudia, with whom St. Paul lodged, 
and who were among his first converts (see Ch. X., Sta. 
Pudenziana). She gave shelter in her house to a number of 
persecuted Christians, twenty-three of whom were discovered 
and martyred in her presence. She then buried their bodies 
in the catacombs of her grandmother, Sta. Priscilla, but, 
collecting their blood in a sponge, placed it in a well in her 
own house, where she was afterwards buried herself. An 
oratory is said to have been erected on the site by Pius I., 
A.D. 160, and was certainly in existence in a.d. 499, Avhen it 
is mentioned in the acts of a Council. In a.d. 822 the ori- 
ginal church was destroyed, and the present church erected 
by Pascal I., of whose time are the low tower, the porch, the. 
terra-cotta cornices, and the mosaics. During the absence of 
the popes at Avignon, Sta. Prassede was one of the many 
churches which fell almost into ruin, and it has since suffered 
terribly from injudicious modernisations, first in the fifteenth 
century from Rosellini, under Nicholas V., and afterwards 
under S. Carlo Borromeo in 1564. 

The interior is a basilica, the nave being separated from 
the aisles by sixteen granite columns, many of which have 
been boxed up in hideous stucco pilasters, decorated with 
frescoes of apostles ; but their Corinthian capitals are 
visible, carved with figures of birds (the eagle, cock, and 
dove) in strong relief against the acanthus leaves. The 
nave is divided into four compartments by arches rising from 
the square pilasters ; the roof is coffered. 

In the right aisle is the entrance to the famous chapel, 
called, from its unusual and mysterious splendour, the Orto 
del Paradiso — originally dedicated to S. Zeno, then to the 
Virgin, with the invocation " Libera nos a poeniij inferi," 



374 WALKS IN ROME. 

and finally to the great relic which it contains. Females are 
never allowed to enter this shrine except upon Sundays in 
Lent, but can see the relic through a grating. Males are 
admitted by the door which is flanked by two columns of 
rare black and white marble, supporting a richly-sculptured 
marble cornice, above which are two lines of mosaic heads 
in circlets — in the outer, the Saviour and the twelve apostles ; 
in the inner, the Virgin between St. Stephen and St. Lau- 
rence, with eight female saints ; at the angles St. Pudens 
and St. Pastor. In the interior of the chapel four granite 
columns support a lofty groined vault, which, together with 
the upper part of the walls, is entirely covered with mosaic 
figures, which stand out distinctly from a gold ground. 

" Here are SS. Peter and Paul before a throne, on which is the cross, 
but no seated figure; the former apostle holding a single gold key,* the 
latter a scroll ; St. John the Evangelist, with a richly-bound volume ; 
SS. James and Andrew, the two daughters of Pudens, and St. Agnes, 
all in rich vestments, and holding crowns ; the Virgin Mary (a veiled 
matronly figure), and St. John the Baptist standing beside her; under 
the arch of a window, another half-figure of Mary, with three other 
females, all having the nimbus, one crowned, one with a square halo to 
indicate a person still living ; above these, the Divine Lamb on a hill, 
from which the four rivers issue, with stags drinking of their waters ; 
above the altar, the Saviour, between four other saints, — figures in part 
barbarously sacrificed to a modern tabernacle that conceals them. On 
the vault a colossal half-figure of the Saviour, youthful but severe in 
aspect, with cruciform nimbus, appears in a large circular halo supported 
by four archangels, solemn forms in long white vestments, that stand 
finely distinct in the dim light. Within a niche over the altar is another 
mosaic of the Virgin and Child, with the two daughters of Pudens, in 
which Rumohr (Italienische Forsch.) observes ruder execution, indi- 
cating origin later than the ninth century.'*— I/emans' Ancient Christian 
Art. 

The relic preserved here (one of the principal objects of 
pilgrimage in Rome) is the column to which our Saviour is 
reputed to have been bound, said to have been given by the 
Saracens to Giovanni Colonna, cardinal of this church, and 
legate of the crusade, because, when he had fallen into their 
hands and was about to be put to death, he was rescued by 
a marvellous intervention of celestial light. Its being of 
the rarest blood jasper is a reason against its authenticity ; 
the peculiarity of its formation having even given rise to the 
mineralogical term, " Granito della Colonna." A disk of 

* "Ciampini gives .-\n engraving of this figure without the key ; a detail, therefore, 
to be ascribed to restorers -—surely neither justifiable nor judicious. '' — Hevians. 



STA. PRASSEDE. 375 

porphyry in the pavement marks the grave of forty martyrs 
collected by Paschal I. The mother of that pope is also 
buried here, and the inscription commemorating her observes 
an ancient ecclesiastical usage in allowing her the title of 
" episcopa : " " Ubi utique benignissimce slice genitricis, scilicet 
Domince Theodorce, EpiscopcE corpus quiescitT In this chapel 
Paschal I. saw the spirit of his nephew dragged to heaven by 
an angel, through the little window, while he was saying a 
mass for his soul. 

The high altar covers the entrance to a small crypt, in 
which are two ancient sarcophagi, containing the remains of 
the sainted sisters Prassede and Pudenziana. An altar here, 
richly decorated with mosaic, is shown as that which existed 
in the house of Prassede. Above is a fresco, referred to the 
twelfth century, representing the Madonna between the 
sainted sisters. At the end of the left aisle is a large slab of 
granite (nero-bianco), upon which Sta. Prassede is said to 
have slept, and above it a picture of her asleep. In the 
centre of the nave is the well where she collected the blood, 
with a hideous statue of her squeezing it out of a sponge. 

The chapel at the end of the left aisle is that of S. Carlo 
Borromeo, who was cardinal of this church, and contains his 
episcopal throne (a wooden chair) and a table, at which, Hke 
St. Gregory, he used to feed and wait upon twelve poor men 
daily. The pictures in this chapel, by Louis Ster?i, represent 
S. Carlo in prayer, and in ecstasy before the Sacrament. In 
the cloister is an old orange-tree which was planted by him, 
but is still flourishing. 

Opposite the side entrance of the Orto del Paradise is 
the tomb of Cardinal Cetive (1474), with his sleeping figure 
and statuettes of SS. Peter and Paul, Sta. Prassede, and Sta. 
Pudenziana. This will recall Browning's quaint forcible 
poem of ' The Bishop who orders his tomb at Saint Praxed's 
church.' 

" Saint Praxed's ever was the church for peace. 



And there how I shall lie through centuries, 
And hear the blessed mutter of the mass, 
And see God made and eaten all day long, 
And feel the steady candle flame, and taste 
Good strong thick stupefying incense-smoke ! " 

Other tombs of interest are those of Cardinal Anchenis, 



376 WALKS IN ROME. 

assassinated in 1286 outside the Porta S. Giovanni, and of 
Monsignor Santoni, a bust said to have been executed by 
Bernini when only ten years old. 

Two pictures in side chapels are interesting in a Vallom- 
brosan church, as connected with saints of that order, — one 
representing S. Pietro Aldobrandini passing through the 
furnace at Settimo ; and another the martyrdom of Cardinal 
Beccaria, put to death at Florence (whither he was sent by 
Alexander IV. to make peace between the Guelfs and 
Ghibellines) — and consigned to hell by Dante. 

" Quel di Beccaria 

Di cui sego Fiorenza la gorgiera." 

Inferno, xxxii. 

Steps of magnificent rosso-antico lead to the tribune, 
which is covered with mosaics of a.d. 817 — 824. Those 
on the arch represent the heavenly Jerusalem ; within is the 
Saviour with a cruciform halo — the hand of the first person 
of the Trinity holding a crown over his head — and St. Peter 
and St. Paul bringing in the sainted sisters of the church ; on 
the right, Pope Paschal I.,* with a model of his church ; on 
the left, St. Zeno (?). Above these figures, is the Adoration 
of the spotless Lamb, and beneath their feet the Jordan ; 
below all is the Lamb again, with the twelve sheep issuing 
from the mystic cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and 
verses recording the work of Paschal L 

"The arrangement of saints at Sta. Prassede (817) is altogether dif- 
ferent from that at Ravenna, but equally striking. Over the grand arch 
which separates the choir from the nave is a mosaic, representing the 
New Jerusalem, as described in the Revelations. It is a walled en- 
closure, with a gate at each end, guarded by angels. Within is seen 
the Saviour of the World, holding in his hand the orb of sovereignty, 
and a company of blessed seated on thrones : outside, the noble army 
of martyrs is seen approaching, conducted and received by angels. 
They are all arrayed in white, and carry crowns in their hands. Lower 
down, on each side, a host of martyrs press forward with palms and 
crowns, to do homage to the Lamb, throned in the midst. None of 
the martyrs are distinguished by name, except those to whom the church 
is dedicated — Sta. Prassede and her sister Pudenziana." — Mis. Jameson. 

While Pope Gelasius II. was celebrating mass in this 
church, he was attacked by armed bands of the inimical 
houses of Leone and Frangipani, and was only rescued by 
the assistance of his nephew Gaetano, after a conflict of 

* With a squnre nimbus, denolin;j execution in his lifetime, as at Sta. Cecilia and 
Sta. Maria in Navicclla. 



ARCH OF GALLIENUS. 377 

some hours. Hence in 1630, Moriandi, abbot of Sta. Pras- 
sede, was suddenly carried off and put to fearful tortures, 
which resulted in his death, ostensibly on account of irregu- 
larities in his convent, but really because he had been heard 
to speak against Urban VI 11/^ 

In the sacristy is preserved a fine picture by Giulio 
Romano of the Flagellation — especially appropriate in the 
church of the Colonna. 

Hence the curious campanile of the old church (built 
1 1 10) may be entered, and a loggia whence the great relics of 
the church are exhibited at Easter, including : portions of 
the crown of thorns, of the sponge, of the Virgin's hair, and 
a miniature portrait of our Saviour — said to have belonged 
to St. Peter, and to have been left by him with the daughters 
of Pudens. 

The Monastery attached to the church, founded by 
Paschal I., was first occupied by Basilian, but since 1198 
has belonged to Vallombrosan monks. Nothing remains of 
the mosaic-covered chapel of St. Agnes, built by the founder 
within its walls. 

Where the Via Sta. Prassede crosses the road leading 
from Sta. Maria Maggiore to the Lateran, is the modem 
gothic church of // Santissimo Redentore^ built by Father 
Douglas within the last few years. 

A little beyond this, attached to the Church of S. Vito, 
from which it has sometimes been named, is the Arch of 
Galliemts (supposed to occupy the site of the Esquiline gate 
in the wall of Servius), dedicated to Gallienus (a.d. 253 — 260) 
and his Empress Salonina, by Marcus Aurelius Victor, evi- 
dently a court-flatterer of the period, who Avas prefect of 
Rome, and possessed gardens on this spot. It is of very 
inferior execution ; the original plan had three arches ; only 
that in the centre remains, but traces of another may be" 
seen on the side next the church. Gallienus was a cruel and 
self-indulgent emperor, who excited the indignation of the 
Romans by leaving his old father, Valerian, to die a captive 
in the hands of the Persians, so that the inscription, " Cle- 
mentissimo principi cuius invicta virtus sola pietate superata 
est," is singularly false, even for the time. 

" II arrivait a Gallien de faire tuer trois ou quatre mille soldats en iin 
jour, et il ecrivait des lettres comme celle-ci, adressee a un de ses 

* See Hemans' Catholic Italy. 



378 WALKS LV ROME. 

r^cneraux : ' Tu n'auras pas fait assez pour moi, si tu ne mets a moil que 
des hommes armes, car le sort de la guerre aurait pu les faire perir. 
II faut tuer quiconque a eu une intention mauvaise, quiconque a mal 
parle de moi. Dechire, tue, extermine: iacera, occide, concidc.'' Entre 
dans Byzance en promettant leur pardon aux troupes qui avaient com- 
battu contre lui, il les fit egorger, et les soldats ravagerent la ville au 
point qu'il n'yrestapas un habitant. Voila pour la clemence. Tandis 
que Valerien, son pere. etait prisonnier du roi des Perses Sapor, qui pour 
monter a cheval se servait du dos du vieil empereur comme d'un marche- 
pied, en attendant qu'il le fit empaiUer, I'indigne fils de Valerien vivait 
au sein des plus honteuses voluptes, et ne tentait pas un seul effort pour 
le delivrer. Voila pour la vaillance et la piete." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 334. 

Close to this Gallienus had ordered a statue of himself 
to be erected, which was to be double the height of the 
colossus of Nero, but it was unfinished at the time of his 
death, and destroyed by his successor. From the centre 
of the arch hung, from the thirteenth century, the chain 
and keys of the gates of Viterbo, removed at the same 
time as the great bell of the Capitol. These interesting 
memorials of middle-age warfare were taken down in 1825. 

Passing under the arch we enter upon the Via Maggiore, 
the main artery leading to Santa Croce. On the left is the 
humble convent of the Moiiache Polacche, where the long- 
suffering Madre Makrena, the sole survivor of the terrible 
persecution of the nuns of Minsk, has lived in the closest 
retirement since her escape in 1845. 

The story of the cruel sufferings of the Polish-Basilian nuns of Minsk 
reminds one of the worsi persecutions of the early Christians, under 
Nero and Diocletian. Makrena Miaczylslawska was abbess of a con- 
vent of thirty-eight nuns, whom the apostate bishop Siemasko first tried 
to compel to the Greek faith in the summer of 1838. Their refusal led 
to their being driven, laden with chains, to Witepsk, in Siberia, where 
they were forced to hard labour, many of them being beaten to death, 
one roasted alive in a hot stove, and another having her brains beaten 
out with a stake by the abbess of the Czernice (apostate nuns), on their 
persisting in their refusal to change their religion. In 1840 the surviving 
nuns were removed to Polock, where they were forced to work at 
building a palace for the bishop Siemasko, and where nine of them 
perished by a falling scaffold, and many others expired under the 
heavy weights they were compvelled to carry, or under the lash. In 
1842 their tortures were increased tenfold,- eight of the sisters having 
their eyes torn out, and others being trodden to death. In 1843 those 
who still survived were removed to Miadzioly, where the "protopope 
Skrykin" said that he would "drown them like puppies," and where 
they were dragged by boats through the shallows of the half-frozen 
Dwina, up to their necks in water, till many died of the cold. In the 
spring of 1845, Makrena, with the only three nuns who survived with 
the uso of their limbs (Eusebia Wawrzecka, Clotilda Konarska, and 



TROPHIES OF MARIUS. 379 

Irene Pomarnacka, ) scaled the walls of their prison, while the priests 
and nuns who guarded them were lying drunk after an orgic, and, after 
wandering for three months in the forests of Lithuania, made good their 
escape. The nuns remained in Vienna ; the abbess, after a series of ex- 
traordinary adventures, arrived in Rome, where she was at first lodged 
in the convent of the Trinita de' Monti. The story of the nuns of 
Minsk was taken down from her dictation at the same time by a number 
of eminent ecclesiastics, authorized by the pope, and the authenticity of 
her statements verified ; after which she retired into complete seclusion 
in the Polish convent on the Esquiline, where she has long filled the 
humble office of portress. Her legs are eaten into the bone by the chains 
she wore in her prison life. The story of the persecution at Minsk may 
be read in " Le Recit de Makrena Miaczylslawska," published at Paris, 
by Lecoffre, in 1846 ; in a paper by Charles Dickens, in the " Household 
Words," for May, 1854; and in " Pictures of Christian Heroism," 1855. 

Nearly opposite this convent is the picturesque ruin of 
a nymphaeum, probably of the time of Septimius Severus, 
erroneously called The Trophies of Maritis, from the 
trophies, now on the terrace in front of the Capitol, which 
were found here. 

Beyond this, on the right, is the entrance of the Villa 
Talombara, occupying a great part of the site of the Baths 
of Titus. 

"This villa once belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden, who has 
left upon the little doorway exactly opposite the ruin called the Trophies 
of Marius, a curious record of her credulity. It consists of a collection 
of unintelligible words, signs, and triangles, given her by some alchymist, 
as the rule to make gold, and which, no doubt, he had found success- 
ful, having obtained from her, and probably from many other votaries, 
abundance of that precious metal in exchange for it. But as she could 
make nothing of it, she caused it to be inscribed here, in case any pas- 
senger, wiser than herself, should be able to develope the mystic signs 
of this golden secret." — Eaton's Rome. 

Though the existing ruin is misnamed, the trophies 
erected in honour of the victories which Marius gained over 
the Cimbri were really set up near this ; and, curiously 
enough, on this site also Marius was defeated at the " Forum 
Esquilinum" by Sylla, who suddenly descended upon Rome 
from Nola with six legions, and entering by the Porta 
Esquilina, met his adversary here, and forced him to fly to 
Ostia. 

Behind the Trophies of Marius a lane branches off on 
the left to the desolate Church of Sta. Bibiana. 

In the tinie of Julian the Apostate, there dwelt in Rome a Christian 
family, consisting of Flavian, his wife Dalfrosa, and his two daughters, 
Bibiana and Demetria. All these died for their faith. Flavian was 

2 c 



38o IP ALA'S IN ROME. 

exiled, and died of starvation ; Dalfrosa was beheaded ; the sisters were 
imprisoned (a.D. 362) and scourged, and Demetria died at once under 
the torture. Bibiana glorified God by longer sufferings. Apronius, the 
prefect of the city, astonished by her beauty, conceived a guilty passion 
for her, and placed her under the care of one of his creatures named 
Rufina, who was gradually to bend her to his will. But Bibiana repelled 
his proposals with horror, and her firmness excited him to such fury, 
that he commanded her to be bound to a column, and scourged to com- 
pliance. "The order was executednvith all imaginable cruelty, rivers 
of blood flowed from each wound, and morsels of flesh were torn away, 
till even the most barbarous spectators were stricken with horror. The 
saint alone continued immoveable, with her eyes fixed upon heaven, and 
her countenance radiant with celestial peace, — until her body being torn 
to pieces, her soul escaped to her heavenly bridegroom, to receive the 
double crown of virginity and martyrdom." * 

After the death of Bibiana, her bv)dy was exposed to dogs for three 
days in the Forum Boarium, but remained unmolested ; after which it 
was stolen at night by John the priest, who buried it here. 

The church, founded in the fifth century by Olympia, a 
Roman matron, was modernised by Bernini for Urban VIII., 
and has no external appearance of antiquity. The interior is 
adorned with frescoes ; those on the right are by Agost'mo 
Ciampelli, those on the left are considered by Lanzi as the 
best works of Pietro da Co7'to?ia. They pourtray in detail the 
story of the saint : — 

1. Bibiana refuses to sacrifice to idols. 

2. The death of Demetria. 

3. Bibiana is scourged at the column. 

4. The body of Bibiana is watched over by a dog. 

5. Olympia founds the church, which is dedicated by Pope Sim- 
plicius. 

The statue of the saint at the high altar is considered the 
masterpiece of Beriiini. It is dignified and graceful, and 
would hardly be recognised as his work. 

"This statue is one of his earliest works ; and it is said that when 
Bernini, in advanced life, returned from France, he uttered, on seeing 
it, an involimtary expression of admiration. 'But,' added he, 'had I 
always worked in this sjtyle, I should have been a beggar,' This would 
lead us to conclude, that his own taste led him to prefer simplicity and 
truth, but that he was obliged to conform to the corrupted predilection 
of the age." — Eato7i' s Rome. 

The remains of the saint are preserved beneath the altar, 
in a splendid sarcophagus of oriental alabaster, adorned with 
a leopard's head. A column of rosso-antico is shown as 
that to which Sta Bibiana was bound during her flagellation. 

* Crciret, Vic des Saints. 



TEMPLE OF MIAERVA MEDIC A. 381 

The fete of the martyred sisters is observed with great 
solemnity on December 2. 

*' II est touchant de voir, le jour de la fete, le Chapitre entier de la 
grande et somptueuse basilique de Sainte-Mai-ie-Majeure venir proces- 
sionellement a cette modeste eglise et celebrer de solennelles et pom- 
peuses ceremonies en I'lionneur de ces deux vierges et leur mere: C'est 
que si ces trois femmes etaient faibles et ignorees selon le monde, elles 
sont devenues par leur foi, fortes et sublimes ; et I'Eglise ne croit 
pouvoir trop faire pour glorifier une pareille grandeur." — Itnpressions 
d'line Catholique ct Rome. 

On or near this site were the Horti Lamia?ti, in which 
the Emperor Caligula was hastily buried after his assassina- 
tion, A.D. 41, though his remains were shortly afterwards 
disinterred by his sisters and burnt. These gardens were 
probably the property of ^Elius Lamia, to whom Horace 
addressed one of his odes.* At an earlier period Elius 
Tubero lived herfe, celebrated for his virtue, his poverty, and 
his little house, where sixteen members of the Elian Gens 
dwelt harmoniously together. t He married the daughter 
of L. Emilius Paulus, " who," says Plutarch, " though the 
daughter of one who had twice been consul and twice 
triumphed, did not blush for the poverty of her husband, 
but admired the virtue which had made him poor," 

On the other side of the Trophies of Marius, the Via Porta 
Maggiore leads to the gate of that name (see Ch. XIH,). 
Approached by a gate on the left of this road, most desolate, 
until the making of the railway amid its vineyards and gar- 
dens, and crowned with lentiscus and other shrubs, is the 
picturesque ruin generally called the Temple of Minerva 
Medica, from a false impression that the Giustiniani Minerva, 
now in the Vatican, had been found here.:]: It is now gen- 
erally decided to be a remnant of the bath built by Augustus 
in honour of his grandsons Caius and Lucius Caesar (sons of 
Agrippa and Julia, It is a decagon, with a vaulted brick 
roof, and nine niches for statues ; those of ^^sculapius, 
Antinous, Hercules, Adonis, Pomona, and (the Farnese) 
Faun, have been found on the site. 

Near this is a curious CoIumbariuf?t of the Arrimtia 
Family, and a brick-lined hollow, supposed to be part of the 
Naumachia which Dion Cassius says that Augustus con- 
structed " in the grove of Caius and Lucius." 

* I. 26, t Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 177. 

t It was found in the gardens of the convent of Sta. Maria sopra Minervi. 



382 WALKS IN ROME. 

Just where the lane turns off to Sta. Bibiana is the en- 
trance to the courtyard of the Church and Monastery of S. 
£tisehio, built upon the site of the house of the saint, a 
priest of noble family, martyred by starvation under Con- 
stantius, a. d. 357. His body rests under the high altar, 
with that of St. Orosus, a Spanish priest, who suffered at 
the same time. The ceiling of the church is painted by 
Mengs, and represents the apotheosis of the patron saint. 
The campanile dates from 1220. In this convent (which was 
conceded to the Jesuits in 1825 by Leo XII.) English clergy- 
men about to join the Roman Catholic Church frequently 
" make a retreat " before their reception ; Archdeacon Wilber- 
force is one of many converts who have been received here. 

Turning towards Sta. Maria Maggiore, on the left is a 
Cross on a pedestal formed by a cannon reversed, and in- 
scribed " In hoc signo vinces," — a memorial of the abso- 
lution given by Clement VIII. in 1595 to Henry IV. of 
France on his being received into the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

Opposite this is a peculiar round arched doorway — unique 
in Rome — forming the entrance tq the Church of S. Antonio 
Abbate, said to occupy the site of a temple of Diana. The 
church is decorated with very coarsely- executed frescoes of 
the life of the saint, — his birth, his confirmation by a bishop 
who predicted his future saintship, and his temptation by 
the devil in various fori s. 

** S. Antonio, called 'the patriarch of monks,' became a hermit 
in his twentieth year, and lived alone in the Egyptian desert till his 
fifty-fifth year, when he founded his monastery of Phaim, where he 
died at the age of 105, having passed his life in perpetual prayer, and 
often tasting no food for three days at a time. In the desert Satan 
was permitted to assault him in a visible manner, to terrify him with 
dismal noises ; and once he so grievously beat him that he lay almost 
dead, covered with bruises and wounds. At other times the fiends attacked 
him with terrible clamours, and a variety of spectres, in hideous shapes 
of the most frightful wild beasts, which they assumed to dismay and 
terrify him ; till a ray of heavenly light breaking in upon him, chased 
them away, and caused him to cry out, ' Where wast thou, my Lord 
and Master ? Why wast thou not with me ? ' And a voice answered, 
' Anthony, I was here the whole time ; I stood by thee, and beheld 
thy combat : and because thou hast manfully withstood thy enemies I 
will always protect thee, and will render thy name famous throughout 
the earth.' " — Butler s Lives of the Saints. 

"Surely the imagery painted on the inner walls of Egyptian tombs, 
and probably believed by Anthony and his compeers to be connected 



S. ANTONIO ABBA TE. 383 

with devil-worship, explains his visions. In the 'Words of the Elders' 
a monk complains of being troubled with ' pictures, old and new.' 
Probably, again, the pain which Anthony felt was the agony of a fever, 
and the visions which he saw its delirium." — Kingsley's Hermits. 

In the chapel of S. Antonio is a very ancient mosaic, 
representing a tiger tearing a bull. 

" Le tigre en mosaique conserve dans I'eglise de St. Antoine, patron 
des animaux, est, selon toute apparence, le portrait d'un acteur re- 
nomme," — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iv. 28. 

Hither, on the week following the feast of St. Anthony 
(January 17), horses, mules, and cows are brought to be 
blest as a preservative against accidents for the year to come. 
On the 23rd, the horses of the pope, Prince Borghese, and 
other Roman grandees (about 2\ p.m.) are sent for this 
purpose. All the animals are sprinkled with holy water by 
a priest, who receives a gift in proportion to the wealth of 
their master, and recites over each group the fonnula, — 

' ' Per intercessionem beati Antonii Abbatis, haec animalia liberantur 
a malis, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen ! " 

" Les bergers romains faisaient la lustration de leurs taureaux ; ils 
purifiaient leurs brebis a la fete de Pales (pour ecarter d'eux toute in- 
fluence funeste), comme ils les lont encore asperger d'eau benite a la 
fete de Saint Antoine." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. ii. 329.* 

" 'Long live St. Anthony,' writes Mabillon (in the 17th century) as 
he describes the horses, asses, and mules, all going on the saint's festival 
to be sprinkled with holy water, and receive the benediction of a 
reverend father. ' All would go to ruin,' say the Romans, "' if this 
act of piety were omitted.' So nobody e'xapes paying toll on this 
occasion, not even Nostro Signore himself." — Stephens' French Bene- 
dictines. 

" S. Antonio Abbate is the patron of the four-footed creation, and his 
feast is a saturnalia for the usually hard-worked beasts and for their at- 
tendants and drivers. Gentlefolks must be content on this day to stay 
at home or go on foot, for there are not wanting solemn tales of how the 
unbelievers who had obliged their coachmen to drive out on this day 
have been punished by great misfortunes. The church of S. Antonio 
stands in a large piazza, usually looking like a desert ; but to-day it was 
enlivened by a varied throng : horses and mules, with tails and manes 
splendidly interlaced with ribbons, are brought to a small chapel stand- 
ing somewhat apart from the church, where a priest armed with a large 
asperge plentifully besprinkles the animals with the holy water which is 
placed before hirn in tubs and pails, sometimes apparently with a sly 
wish to excite them to gambols. Devout coachmen bring larger or 

* This pagan benediction of the animals is represented in a bas-relief in the 
Vatican (Museo Pio-Clementino, 157). A peasant bearing two ducks as his offering, 
brings his cow to be blessed by a priest at the door of a chapel, and the priest delaying 
to come forth, a calf drinks up the holy water. Ovid describes how he took part in 
the feast of Pales, and sprinkled the cattle with a laurel bough. {Fasti, iv. 728.) 



384 IVALKS LV ROME, 

smaller wax-taper?, and their masters send alms and gifts, in order to 
sernre to their valuable and useful animals a year's exemption from 
disease and accident. Horned cattle and donkeys, equally precious and 
serviceable to their owners, have their share in the blessing." — Goethe, 
Roniische Briefe. 

"At the blessing of the animals, an adventure happened, which 
afforded us some amusement, A countryman, having got a blessing on 
his beast, putting his whole trust in its power, set off from the church 
door at a grand gallop, and had scarcely cleared a hundred yards before 
the ungainly animal tumbled down with him, and over its head he rolled 
into the dirt. He soon got up, however, and shook himself, and so 
did the horse, without either seeming to be much the worse. The 
priest seemed not a whit out of countenance at this ; and some of the 
standers-by exclaimed, with laudable steadfastness of faith, ' That but for 
the blessing, they might have broken their necks.' " — Eato)i s Rot7U. 

"■ Un postilion Italien, qui voyait mourir son cheval, priait pour lui, 
et s'ecriait : O, Sant' Antonio, abbiate pieta dell' anima sua ! " — • 
Madame de Sta'el. 

**The hog was the representative of the demon of sensuality and 
gluttony, which Anthony is supposed to have vanquished by the exer- 
cise of piety and by the divine aid. The ancient custom of placing in 
all his effigies a black pig at his feet, or under his feet, gave rise to the 
superstition, that this unclean animal was especially dedicated to him 
and under his protection. The monks of the Order of St. Anthony 
kept herds of consecrated pigs, which were allowed to feed at the public 
charge, and which it was a profanation to steal or kill ; hence the pro- 
verb about the fatness of a ' Tantony pig.'" — yamesojt's Sacred Art, 

We now enter the Piazza of Sta. Maria Maggiore, in front 
of which stands a beautiful Corinthian column, now called 
Colonjia della Vergine. This is the last remaining column 
of the Basilica of Constantine, and is forty-seven feet high 
without its base and capital. ' It was brought hither by 
Paul V. in 16 13. The figure of the Virgin on the top is by 
Bertelot. 

The Basilica of Sta. Maj'ia Maggiore^ frequently named 
from its founder the Liber ian Basilica, was founded a.d. 352, 
by Pope Liberius, and John,* a Roman patrician, to com- 
memorate a miraculous fall of snow, Avhich covered this spot 
of ground and no other, on the 5th of August, when the Virgin 
appearing in a vision, showed them that she had thus appro- 
priated the site of a new temple. t This legend is comme- 
morated every year on the 5th of August, the festa of La 
Madonna della Neve, when, during a solemn high mass in the 

* His flat tombstone is in the centre of the nave. 

+ This story is the subject of two of Murillo's most beautiful pictures in the 
gallery at IMadrid. The first represents the vision of the Virgin to John and his 
wife, — in the second they tell what they have seen to Pope Liberius. 



STA MARIA MAGGIORE. 385 

Borghese chapel, showers of white rose-leaves are thrown 
down constantly through two holes in the ceiling, " like a 
leafy mist between the priests and worshippers." 

This church, in spite of many alterations, is in some 
respects internally the most beautiful and harmonious build- 
ing in Rome, and retains much of the character which it 
received when rebuilt between 432 and 440, by Sixtus III., 
who dedicated it to Sta. Maria Mater Dei, and established 
it as one of the four patriarchal basilicas, whence it is pro- 
vided with the " porta santa," only opened by the pope, 
with great solemnity, four times in a century. 

The west front was added under Benedict XIV. (Lam- 
bertini) in 1741, by Ferdinando Fuga, destroying a portico 
of the time of Eugenius III., of which the only remnant is 
an architrave, inserted into which is an inscription, quoted 
by its defenders in proof of the existence of Mariolatry 
in the twelfth century : — 

" Tertius Eugenius Romanus Papa benignus 

Obtulit hoc munus, Virgo Maria, tibi. 
Quae Mater Christi fieri merito meruisti, 

Salva perpetua Virginitate tibi. 
Es Via, Vita, Salus, totius Gloria Mundi, 

Da veniam culpis, Virginitatis Hones." 

In this portico is a statue of Philip IV. of Spain by 
Lucenti. In the upper story are preserved the mosaics 
which once decorated the old fa9ade, some of them rjpre- 
senting the miracle which led to the foundation of the 
church. ' 

"To 1300 belong the mosaics on the upper part of the fa9ade of 
Sta. Maria Maggiore (now inserted in the loggia), in which, in two 
rows, framed in architectural decorations, may be seen Christ in the 
act of benediction, and several saints above, and the legend of the 
founding of the church below — both well-arranged compositions. An 
inscription gives the name of the otherwise unknown master, * Philippus 
Rusuti.' This work was formerly attributed to the Florentine mosaicist 
Gaddo Gaddi, who died 13 12 " — Kugler. 

Five doors, if we include the walled-up Porta Santa, lead 
into the magnificent nave (280 feet long, 60 broad), lined by 
an avenue of white marble columns, surmounted by a frieze 
^f mosaic pictures from the Old Testament, of a.d. 440 — un- 
broken, except where six of the subjects have been cut away 
to make room for arches in front of the two great side 
chapels. The mosaics increase in splendour as they ap- 



3S-5 WALKS LY ROME. 

proach the tribune, in front of which is a grand baldacchino 
by Fuga, erected by Benedict XIV., supported by four 
porphyry columns wreathed with gilt leaves, and surmounted 
by four marble angels by Pietro Bracci. The pavement is 
of the most glorious opus-alexandrinum, and its crimson 
and violet hues temper the white and gold on the walls. 
The flat roof (by Sangallo),* panelled and carved, is gilt 
with the first gold brought to Spain from South Ame- 
rica, and presented to Alexander VI. by Ferdinand and 
Isabella. 

'* The mosaics above the chancel arch are valuable for the illustration 
of Christian doctrine : the throne of the Lamb as described in the 
Apocalypse, SS. Peter and Paul beside it (the earliest instance of 
their being thus represented) ; and the four symbols of the Evangelists 
above ; the Annunciation ; the Angel appearing to Zacharias ; the 
Massacre of the Innocents ; the Presentation in the Temple ; the 
Adoration of the Magi ; Herod receiving the head of St, John the 
Baptist ; and, below these groups, a flock of sheep, type of the faithful, 
issuing from the mystic cities, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. We see here 
one curious example of the nimbus, round the head of Herod, as a 
symbol of power, apart from sanctity. In certain details these mosaics 
have been altered, Avith a view to adapting them to modern devotional 
bias, in a manner that deserves reprobation ; but Ciampini (Monumenta 
Vetera) shows us in engraving what the originals were before this 
alteration, effected under Benedict XIV. In the group of the Ador- 
ation the child alone occupied the throne, while opposite (in the original 
work) was seated, on another chair, an elderly person in a long blue 
mantle veiling the head — concluded by Ciampini to be the senior 
among the Magi ; the two others, younger, and both in the usual 
Oriental dress, with trousers and Phr)'gian caps, being seen to approach 
at the same side, whilst the mother stood beside the throne of the 
child, — her figure recognisable from its resemblance to others in scenes 
where she appears in the same series. As this group is now before us, 
the erect figure is left out ; the seated one is converted into that of Mary, 
with a halo round the head, though in the original even such arttribute 
(alike given to the vSaviour and to all the angels introduced) is not 
assigned to her." — Hemans Ancient Christian Art. 

The vault of the tribune is covered with mosaics by 
Jacopo da Turrita, the same who executed those at the 
Lateran basilica. 

"A general affinity with the style of Cimabue is observable in some 
mosaics e.\.ecuted by contemporary artists. Those in Sta. Maria 
Maggiore are inscribed with the name of Jacobus Torriti, and exe- 
cuted between 1287 and 1292. They are surpassed by no contem- 
porary work in dignity, grace, and decorative beauty of arrangement. 
In a blue, gold-starred circle is seen Christ enthroned with the Virgin ; 
on each side are adoring angels, kneeling and flying, on a gold 
ground, with St. Peter and St. Paul, the two St. Johns, St. Francis, 



STA. MARIA MAGGIORE. 387 

and St. Anthony (the same in size and position as at St. J. Lateran), 
advancing devoutly along. The upper part is filled with graceful vine- 
branches, with symbolical animals among them. Below is Jordan, 
with small river gods, boats, and figures of men and animals. Further 
below are scenes from the life of Christ in animated arrangement. The 
group in the centre of the circle, of Christ enthroned with the Virgin, is 
especially fine: while the Saviour is placing the crown on His mother's 
head, she lifts up her hands with the expression both of admiration and 
of modest remonstrance.* The forms are very pure and noble; the 
execution careful, and very different from the Roman mosaics of the 
twelfth century." — Kugler. 

In front of and beneath the high altar Pius IX. has 
lately been preparing his own monument, by constructing a 
splendid chamber approached by staircases, and lined with 
the most precious alabaster and marbles. 

On the right of the western entrance is the tomb of the 
Rospigliosi pope, Clement IX. (1667 — 69), the work of 
Ercole Ferrata, a pupil of Bernini. His body rests before 
tlie high altar, surrounded by a number of the members of 
his family. Left of the entrance is the tomb of Nicholas IV., 
Masci (1288—92), erected to his memory three hundred 
years after his death by Sixtus V. while still a cardinal. He 
is represented giving benediction, between two allegorical 
figures of Justice and Religion, — a fine work of Leonardo da 
Sarzana. 

"It is well to know that this pope, a mere upstart from the dust, 
sought to support himself through the mighty family of Colonna, by 
raising them too high. His friend, the Cardinal Giacomo Colonna, 
contributed with him to the renewal of the mosaics which are in the 
tribune of Sta. Maria Maggiore, and one can see their two figures 
there to this day. It was in this reign that Ptolemais, the last possession 
of the Christians in Asia, fell into the hands of the Mohammedans; 
thus ended the era of the Crusades." — Gregorcrvius. 

Behind this tomb, near the walled-up Porta Santa, is a 
good tomb of two bishops, brothers, of the fifteenth century, 
and in the same aisle are many other monuments of the 
sixteenth century, some of them fine in their way. 

Nearly on a line with the baldacchino is the entrance of 
the Borghese Chapel, built by Flaminio Ponzio for Paul V. 
in 1608, gorgeous with precious marbles and alabasters. 
Over its altar is preserved one of the pictures attributed to 

* This mosaic will bring to mind the beautiful lines of Dante : — 
" L' amor che mosse gi^ 1' eterno padre 
Per figlia aver di sua Deita trina 
Costei che fu del figlio suo poi madre 
Deir universo qui fa la regina. " 



388 WALKS IN ROME. 

St. Luke (and announced to be such in a papal bull attached 
to the walls !), much revered from the belief that it stayed 
the plague which decimated the city during the reign of 
Pelagius II., and that (after its intercession had been sought 
by a procession by order of Innocent VIII.) it brought about 
the overthrow of the Moorish dominion in Spain. 

** On conserve a Sainte Marre Majeure une des images de la Madonne 
peintes par St. Luc, et plusieurs fois on a trouve les anges chantant les 
litanies autour de ce tableau." — Steiidal. 

The "Scheme of decorations in this gorgeous chapel is so remark- 
able, as testifying to the development which the theological idea of 
the Virgin, as the Sposa or personified Church, had attained in the 
time of Paul V. — the same pope who in 1615 promulgated the famous 
bull relative to the Immaculate Conception " — that the insertion of the 
whole passage of Mrs. Jameson on this subject will not be considered 
too much. 

" P'irst, and elevated above all, we have the 'Madonna della 
Concezione,' 'Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception,' in a glory of 
light, sustained and surrounded by angels, having the crescent under 
her feet, according to the approved treatment. Beneath, round the 
dome, we read in conspicuous letters the text from the Revelation : — 

, SIGNUM . MAGNUM . APPARAVIT . IN . CCELO . MULIER . AMICTA . SOLE . 
I ET . LUNA . SUB . PEDIBUS . EJUS . ET . IN . CAPITE . EJUS . CORONA . 

^— ^TELLARUM . DUODECIM. Lower down is a second inscription ex- 

J)ressing the dedication. MARi^ . CHRiSTi . MATRI . semper . virgini . 

/PAILLUS . QUINTUS . P.M. The decorations beneath the cornice consist 

of eighteen large frescoes, and six statues in marble, above life size. 

We have the subjects arranged in the following order : — 

" I. The four great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, 
in their usual place in the four pendatives of the dome. 

r^2. Two large frescoes. In the first the Vision of St. Gregory 
Thaumaturgus, and Heretics bitten by Serpents. In the second, St. 
John Damascene and S. Ildefonso miraculously rewarded for defending 
the majesty of the Virgin. 

"3. A large fresco, representing the four Doctors of the Church who 
had especially written in honour of the Virgin: viz., Irenseus and 
Cyprian, Ignatius and Theophilus, grouped two and two. 

"4. St. Luke, who painted the Virgin, and whose gospel contains 
the best account of her. 

"5. As spiritual conquerors in the name of the Virgin, St. Dominic 
and St. Francis, each attended by two companions of h[s Order. 

"6. As military conquerors in the name of the Virgin, the Emperor 
Heraclius, and Narses, the general against the Arians. 
, " 7. A group of three female figures, representing the three famous 
saintly princesses, who in marriage preserved their virginity, Pulcheria, 
Edeltruda (our famous Queen Ethelreda), and Cunegimda. 

"8. A group of three learned Bishops, who had especially defended 
the immaculate puritv of the Virgin, St. Cyril, St. Anselm, and St. 
Denis (?). 

"9. The miserable ends of those who were opposed to the honour of 



BORGHESE CHAPELSTA. MARIA MAGGIORE. 389 

the Virgin. I. The death of Julian the Apostate, very oddly repre- 
sented ; he lies on an altar, transfixed by an arrow, as a victim ; St. 
Mercurius in the air. 2. The death of Leo IV., who destroyed the 
effigies of the Virgin. 3. The death of Constantine IV., also a famous 
iconoclast. 

" The statues which are placed in niches are — 

** I — 2. St. Joseph, as the nominal husband, and St. John the 
Evangelist, as the nominal son, of the Virgin; the latter, also, as 
prophet and poet, with reference to the passage in the Revelation, 
xii. i. 

"3 — 4. Aaron, as priestly ancestor (because his wand blossomed), 
and David, as kingly ancestor, of the Virgin. 

"5 — 6. St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who was present at the death 
of the Virgin, and St. Bernard, who composed, the famous ' Salve 
Regina ' in her honour. 

"Such is this grand systematic scheme of decoration, which, to those 
who regard it cursorily, is merely a sumptuous confusion of colours and 
forms, or at best a ' fine example of the Guido school and Bernini.' It 
is altogether a very complete and magnificent specimen of the prevalent 
style of art, and a very comprehensive and suggestive expression of the 
prevalent tendency of thought in the Roman Catholic Church from 
the beginning of the seventeenth century. In no description of this 
chapel have I seen the names and subjects accurately given : the style of 
art belongs to the decadence, and the taste being worse than questionable, 
the prevailing doctrinal idea has been neglected, or never understood." — 
Legettds of the Aladonna, Ixxi. 

On the right is the tomb of Clement VIII. (1592 — 1605), 
the Florentine Ippolito Aldobrandini, the builder of the 
new palace of the Vatican, and the cruel torturer and 
executioner of the Cenci. He is represented in the act of 
benediction. The bas-reliefs on his monument comme- 
morate the principal events of his reign, — the conclusion of 
peace between France and Spain, and the taking of Ferrara, 
which he seized from the heirs of Alphonso II. 

On the left is the tomb of Paul V. (1605 — 162 1), Camillo 
Borghese, — in whose reign St. Peter's was finished, as every 
traveller learns from the gigantic inscription over its portico, 
—who founded the great Borghese family, and left to his 
nephew, Cardinal Scipio Borghese, a fortune which enabled 
him to buy the Borghese Palace and to build the Borghese 
Villa. 

"It is a truly herculean figure, with a grandly developed head, 
while in his thick neck, pride, violence, and sensuality seem to be 
united. He is the first pope who wore the beard of a cavalier, 
like that of Henry IV., which recalls the Thirty-years' War, which he 
lived through ; as far as the battle of the White Mountain. In this 
round, domineering, pride-swollen countenance, appears the violent, 
imperious spirit of Paul, which aimed at an absolute power. Who 



390 WALKS IX ROME. 

does not remember his famous quarrel with Venice, and the role which 
his far superior adversary Paolo Sarpi played with such invincible 
courage ? The bas-reliefs of his tomb represent the reception i;iven by 
the pope to the envoys of Congo and Japan, the building of the 
citadel of Ferrara, the sending of auxiliary troops to Hungary to the 
assistance of Rudolph II., and the canonization of Sta. Francesca 
Romana and S. Carlo Borromeo." — Gi-egorovius. 

The frescoes in the cupola are by Cigoli; those around 
the altar by the Cav. D'Arpino ; those above the tombs and 
on the arches by Guido, except the Madonna, which is 
by La?ifranco. The late beloved Princess Borghese, nee 
Lady Gwendoline Talbot, was buried in front of the altar, 
all Rome following her to the gr5,ve. 

The funeral of Princess Borghese proved the feeling with which 
she was regarded. Her body lay upon a car which was drawn by 
forty young Romans, and was followed by all the poor of Rome, the 
procession swelling like a river in every street and piazza it passed 
through, while from all the windows as it passed flowers were showered 
down. In funeral ceremonies of great personages at Rome an ancient 
custom is observed by which, when the body is lowered into the grave, 
a chamberlain, coming out to the church door, announces to the 
coachman, who is waiting with the family carriage, that his master 
or mistress has no longer need of his services ; and the coachman 
thereupon breaks his staff of office and drives mournfully away. 
"When this formality was fulfilled at the funeral of Princess Borghese, 
the whole of the vast crowd waiting outside the basilica broke into 
tears and sobs, and kneeling by a common impulse, prayed aloud for the 
soul of their benefactress. 

The chapel has been lately the scene of a miraculous 
story, with reference to a visionary appearance of the Prin- 
cess Borghese, which has obtained great credit among the 
people, by whom she is already looked upon as a saint. 

The first chapel in the right aisle is that of the Patrizi 
family, and close by is the sepulchral stone of their noble 
ancestor, Giovanni Patricino, whose bones were found be- 
neath the high altar, and deposited here in 1700. A litde 
further is the chapel of the Santa Croce, with ten porphyry 
columns. Then comes the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament, built 
by Fontana for Sixtus V. while still Cardinal of Montalto. 
Gregory XIII., who was then on the throne, visited this 
gorgeous chapel when it was nearly completed, and imme- 
diately decided that one who could build such a splendid 
temple was sufficiently rich, and suppressed the cardinal's 
pension. Fontana advanced a thousand scudi for the com- 
pletion of the work, and had the dehcacy never to allow the 



CHAPEL OF THE SACRAMENT, 391 

cardinal to imagine that he was indebted to hn-n. The 
chapel, restored 1870, is adorned with statues by Giobattista 
Pozzo, Cesare Nebbia, and others. Under the altar is a 
presepio — one of the best works of Bernini, and opposite 
to it, in the confession, a beautiful statue of S. Gaetano 
(founder of the Theatines, who died 1547*), with two 
little children. On the right is the splendid tomb of 
Pius v., Michaele Ghislieri (1566 — 72), the barefooted, bare- 
headed Dominican monk of Sta. Sabina, who in his short 
six years' reign beheld amongst other events the victory of 
Lepanto, the fall of the Huguenots in France, and the mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew, events which were celebrated at 
Rome \\\'Ci\ fetes and thanksgivings. The figure of the pope, 
a monk wasted to a skeleton (by Leonardo de Sarzana), sits 
in the central niche, between statues of St. Dominic and St. 
Peter Martyr. A number of bas-reliefs by different sculptors 
represent the events of his life. Some are by the Flemish 
artists Nicolas d' Arras and Egidius. 

On the left, is the tomb of Sixtus V. (1585 — 90), Felice 
Perretti, who as a boy kept his father's pigs at Montalto ; 
who as a young man was a Franciscan monk preaching in 
the Apostoli, and attracting crowds by his eloquence ; and 
who then rose to be bishop of Fermo, soon after to be 
cardinal, and was lastly raised to the papal throne, which 
he occupied only five years, a time which sufficed for the 
prince of the Church who loved building the most, to renew 
Rome entirely. 

"If anything can still the spectator to silence, and awaken him to 
great recollections, it is the monument of this astonishing man, who, 
as child, herded swine, and as an old man commanded people and 
kings, and who filled Rome with so many works, that from every side 
his name, like an echo, rings in the traveller's ear. We never cease to 
be amazed at the wonderful luck which raised Napoleon from the dust 
to the throne of the world, as if it were a romance or a fairy story. 
But if in the history of kings these astonishing changes are extra- 
ordinary accidents, they seem quite natural in the history of the popes, 
they belong to the very essence of Christendom, which does not 
appeal to the person, but to the spirit ; and while the one history is full 
of ordinary men, who, without the prerogative of their crown, would 
have sunk into eternal oblivion, the other is rich in great men, who, 
placed in a different sphere, would have been equally worthy of re- 
nown. " — Gregorovius. 

In a little chapel on the left of the entrance of this — which 

♦ See Sta. Dorothea, ch. xvii. 



392 WALKS lA- ROME. 

is as it were a transept of the church — is a fine picture of St, 
Jerome by Spagniioldto, and in the chapel opposite a sar- 
cophagus of two early Christian consuls, richly wrought in 
the Roman imperial style, but with Christian subjects, — 
Daniel in the den of lions, Zaccheus in the sycamore-tree, 
Martha at the raising of Lazarus, &c. 

At the end of the right aisle, near the door, is perhaps the 
finest gothic monument in Rome, — the tomb of Cardinal 
Gonsalvi, bishop of Albano, c. 1299. 

* ' A recumbent statue, in pontifical vestments, rests on a sarcopha- 
gus, and two angels draw aside curtains as if to show us the dead ; 
in the background is a mosaic of Mary enthroned, with the Child, the 
apostle Matthias, St. Jerome, and a smaller kneeling figure of Gonsalvi, 
in pontifical robes ; at the apex is a tabernacle with cusped arch, and 
below the epitaph ' Hoc opus fecit Joannes Magister Cosmae civis 
Romanus,' the artist's record of himself. In the hands of St. Matthias 
and St. Jerome are scrolls ; on that held by the apKJstle, the words, 
* Me tenet ara prior' ; on St. Jerome's, 'Recubo presepis ad antrum', 
these epigraphs confirming the tradition that the bodies of St, Matthias 
and St. Jerome repose in this church, while indicating the sites of their 
tombs. Popular regards have distingiiished this tomb ; no doubt in 
intended honour to the Blessetl Virgin, lamps are kept ever burning, 
and vases of flowers ranged, before her mosaic image." — Hemani 
Mediteval Christian Art. 

One of the greatest of the Christmas ceremonies is the 
procession at 5 a.m., in honour of the great relic of the 
church— the Santa Culla — i.e., the cradle in which our 
Saviour was carried into Egypt, not, as is frequently ima- 
gined, the manger, which is allowed to have been of stone, 
and of which a single stone only is supposed to have found 
its way to Rome, and to be preserved in the altar of the 
Blessed Sacrament. The " Santa Culla " is preserved in a 
magnificent reliquary, six feet high, adorned with bas-reliefs 
and statuettes in silver. On the afternoon of Christmas 
eve the public can visit the relic at an altar in a little chapel 
near the sacristy. On the afternoon of Christmas Day it 
is also exposed, but upon the high altar, where it is less 
easily seen. 

*' Le Seigneur Jesus a voulu naitre dans une etable ; mais leshommes 
ont apporte precieusement le petit berceau qui a re9u le salut du monde, 
dans la reine des cites, et ils I'ont enchasse dans I'or. 

" C'cst bien ici que nous devons accourir avec joie et redire ce chant 
triomphant del'figlise: Adeste, fideles, Iceti triumphantes ; venite, venite 
in Bdhlcem.''' — Une Chretienne ct Rome. 



ST A. MARIA MAGGIORE. 393 

Among the many other relics preserved here are two little 
bags of the brains of St. Thomas a Becket. 

It was in this church that Pope St. Martin I. was cele- 
brating mass in the seventh century, when a guard sent by 
the Exarch Olympius appeared on the threshold with orders 
to seize and put him to death. At the sight of the pontiff 
the soldier was stricken with blindness, a miracle which led 
to the conversion of Olympius and many other persons. 

Platina, the historian of the popes, was buried here, with 
the epitaph : " Quisquis es, si pius, Platynam et sua ne 
vexes, anguste jacent et soli volunt esse." 

Sta. Maria Maggiore was the scene of the seizure of 
Hildebrand by Cencius : 

" On Christmas Eve, 1075, the city of Rome was visited by a dreadful 
tempest. Darkness brooded over the land, and the trembling spectators 
believed that the day of final judgment was about to dawn. In this war 
of the elements, however, two processions were seen advancing to the 
Church of Sta. Maria Maggiore. At the head of one was the aged Hil- 
debrand, conducting a {q.\n priests to worship at the shrine of the Virgo 
Deipara. The other was preceded by Cencius, a Roman noble. At 
each pause in the tempest might be heard the hallelujahs of the wor- 
shippers, or the voice of the pontiff, pouring out benedictions on the 
little flock which knelt before him — when Cencius grasped his person, 
and some yet more daring ruffian inflicted a wound on his forehead. 
Bound with cords, stripped of his sacred vestments, beaten, and sub- 
jected to the basest indignities, the venerable minister of Christ was 
carried to a fortified mansion within the walls of the city, again to be 
removed at daybreak to exile or death. Women were there, with 
women's sympathy and kindly offices, but they were rudely put aside ; 
and a drawn sword was already aimed at the pontiff's bosom, when the 
cries of a fierce multitude, threatening to burn or batter down the 
house, arrested the aim of the assassin. An arrow, discharged from 
below, reached and slew him. The walls rocked beneath the strokes 
of the maddened populace, and Cencius, falling at his prisoner's feet, 
became himself a suppliant for pardon and for life. .... In 
profound silence, and with undisturbed serenity, Hildebrand had thus 
far submitted to these atrocious indignities. The occasional raising ot 
his eyes towards heaven alone indicated his consciousness of them. 
But to the supplication of his prostrate enemy he returned an instant 
and a calm assurance of forgiveness. He rescued Cencius from the ex- 
asperated besiegers, dismissed him in safety and in peace, and returned, 
amidst the acclamations of the whole Roman people, to complete the 
interrupted solemnities of Sta. Maria Maggiore." — Stephens' Lectures on 
Eccles. Hist. 

Leaving the church by the door behind the tribune, we 
find ourselves at the top of the steep slope of the Esquiline 
and in front of an Obelisk erected here by Fontana for 



394 WALKS IN ROME. 

Sixtus v., — brought from Egypt by Claudius, and one of 
two which were used to guard the entrance to the mauso- 
leum of Augustus. The inscriptions on three of its sides 
are worth notice : — " Christi Dei in aeternum viventis 
cunabula Isetissime colo, qui mortui sepulchro Augusti 
tristis serviebam." — " Quern Augustus de vergine nasci- 
turum vivens adoravit, sed deinceps dominum dici noluit, 
adoro." — " Christus per invictam crucem populo pacem 
prsebeat, qui Augusti pace in praesepe nasci voluit." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Via S. Giovanni — The Obelisk and Baptistery — Basilica and Cloisters- 
Mosaic of the Triclinium — Santa Scala — Palace of the Lateran — 
Villa Massimo Arsole — SS. Pietro e Marcellino — Villa Wol- 
konski — (Porta Furba — Tombs of the Via Latina — Basilica of S. 
Stefano) — Santa Croce in Gerusalemme — AmphitheatrumCastrense 
— Porta Maggiore — (Tomb of Sta. Helena — Torre dei Schiavi — 
Cervaletto — Cerbara) — Porta and Basilica of S. Lorenzo — Catacomb 
of S. Hippolytus. 

"DEHIND the Coliseum the Via S. Giovanni ascends 
•L' the slope of the Esquiline. In mediaeval times this 
road was always avoided by the popes, on account (as 
most authorities state) of the scandal attaching to the 
more than doubtful legend of Joan, the famous papessa, 
who is said to have horrified her attendants by giving 
birth to a child on this spot, during a procession from 
the Lateran, and to have died of shame and terror 
immediately afterwards. Joan is stated to have been 
educated at Athens, to have skilfully obtained her elec- 
tion to the papal throne, disguised as a man, between the 
reign of Leo IV. and that of Benedict III. (855), and to 
have taken the name of John VIII. In the cathedral of 
Siena the heads of all the popes in terra-cotta (down to 
Alexander III.) decorate the frieze above the arches of 
the nave, and among them was that of Pope Joan, 



OBELISK OF THE LA TERAN. 395 

inscribed "Johannes VIII. Femina de Anglia. ' till 1600, 
when it was changed into a head of Pope Zacharias by 
the Grand Duke, at the request of Pope Clement VIII. 

On the left of this street is S. Clemente (described 
Ch. VII.). On the right, a long wail flooded by a cascade 
of Banksia roses in spring, and a villa inlaid with terra-cotta 
ornaments, are those of the favourite residence of the 
well-known Marchese Campana, the learned archaeologist 
of Etruria, and the chief benefactor of the Etruscan 
museum at the Vatican, cruelly imprisoned and exiled by 
the papal government in 1858, upon an accusation of 
having tampered with the revenues of Monte di Pieta. 

Beyond the turn of the road leading to S. Stefano Rotondo 
(Ch. VII.), bas-reliefs of Our Saviour's Head (from the 
Acheirotopeton in the Sancta Sanctorum) between two can- 
delabra — upon the different buildings, announce the property 
of the Lateran chapter. 

The Piazza di San Giovanni is surrounded by a 
remarkable group of buildings. In front are the Bap- 
tistery and Basilica of the Lateran. On the right is a 
Hospital for women, capable of containing 600 patients ; 
on the left, beyond the modern palace, are seen the build- 
ings which enclose the Santa Scala, and some broken arches 
of the Aqua Marcia. In the centre of the piazza is the 
Obelisk of the Lateran, 150 feet high, the oldest object in 
Rome, being referred by translators of hieroglyphics to the 
year 1740 B.C., when it was raised in memory of the Pharaoh 
Thothmes IV. It was brought, from the temple of the Sun 
at Heliopolis, to Alexandria by Constantine, and removed 
thence by his son Constantius to Rome, where it was used, 
together with the obelisk now in the Piazza del Popolo, 
to ornament the Circus Maximus. Hence it was moved to 
its present site in 1588, by Fontana, for Sixtus V. The 
obelisk was then broken into three pieces, and in order to 
piece them together, some part had to be cut off, but it is 
still the tallest in the city. One of the inscriptions on the 
basement is false, as it narrates that Constantine received at 
the Lateran the baptism which he did not receive till he 
was dying at Nicomedia. 

An octagon building of mean and miserable exterior is 
that of the Baptistery of the Lateran, sometimes called S. 
Giovanni in Fonte, built not by Constantine, to whom it js 

2 D 



396 WALKS IN ROME. 

falsely iiscribed, but by Sixtus III. (430 — 40). Of his time 
are the two porphyry columns at the entrance on the side 
nearest the church, and the eight which form a colonnade 
round the interior, supporting a cornice from which rise 
the eight small columns of white marble, which sustain the 
dome. In the centre is the font of green basalt in which 
Rienzi bathed on the night of August i, 1347, before his 
public appearance ^ as a knight, when he summoned Cle- 
ment VI. and other sovereigns of Europe to appear before 
him for judgment. The cupola is decorated with scenes 
from the life of John the Baptist by Andrea Sacchi, On 
the walls are frescoes pourtraying the life of Constantine 
by Gimigjiafio, Carlo Maratfa, and Atidrea Ca?nassel. 

On the right is the Chapel of St. J^ohn the Baptist^ built by 
Pope Hilary (461 — 67). Between two serpentine columns is 
a figure of St. John Baptist by Z. Valadico after Donatello. 

On the left is the Chapel of St. yohn the Evangelist, also 
built by Hilarys, who presented its bronze doors (said to have 
once belonged to the Baths of Caracalla) in remembrance 
of his delivery from the fury of fanatical monks at tjie 
Second Council of Ephesus, where he appeared as the 
legate of Leo I., — a fact commemorated by the inscription : 
" Liberatori suo B. Joanni Evangelistae Hilarius Episcopus 
famulus Christi." The vault is covered with mosaics repre- 
senting the Spotless Eamb in Paradise. Here is a statue of 
St. John by Land mi. 

Close by is the entrance to the Oratory of S. Venanzio* 
built in 640 by John IV., and dedicated to St. Venantius, 
from a filial feeling to his father, who bore the same name. 
Nothing, however, remains of this time but the mosaics. 
Those in the apse represent the Saviour in the act of bene- 
diction with angels, and below him the Virgin (an aged 
woman) in adoration,t with St. Peter and St. John Baptist, 
St. Paul and St. John the EvangeUst, St. Venantius and St. 
Domnus — and another figure unnamed, probably John IV., 
holding the model of a church. Outside the chancel arch 
are eight saints, with their names (Palmianus, Julius, Aste- 
rius, Anastasius, Maurus, Septimius, Antiochianus, Cajanus), 

* St. Venantius was a child martyred at Camerino, under Decius, in 250. Pope 
Clement X., who had been bishop of Camerino, had a peculiar veneration for this 
saint. 

t This figure of the Virgin is of great interest, as introducing the Greek classical 
type under which she is so often afterwards represented in Latin art. 



C A PELL A BORGIA,-^TILE LATE RAN. 397 

the symbols of the evangeHsts, and the cities Bethlehem 
and Jerusalem ; also the verses : — 

" Martyribus Christi Domini pia vota Johannes 
Reddidit antistes sanctificante Deo. 
Ac sacri fontis simile fulgente metallo, 
Providus instanter hoc copulavit opus : 
Quo quisque gradiens et Christum pronus adorans, 
Effusasque preces impetrat ille suas." 

The next chapel, called the Capella Borgia, and used as 
the burial-place of that family, was once an open portico, 
but this character was destroyed by the building up of the 
intercolumniations. On its facade are a number of frag- 
ments of ancient friezes, &c. Over the inner door is a 
bas-relief of the Crucifixion, of 1494. 

The piteous modernization of this ancient group of 
chapels is chiefly due to the folly of Urban VIII. The 
baptistery is used on Easter Eve for the ceremony of adult 
baptism, the recipients being called Jews. 

The Late7'an derives its name from a rich patrician family, 
whose estates were confiscated by Nero, when their head, 
Plautius Lateranus, was put to death for taking part in the 
conspiracy of Piso.'*" It afterwards became an imperial 
residence, and a portion of it being given by Maximianus to 
his daughter Fausta, second wife of Constantine, received 
the name of " Domus Faustae." It was this which was 
given by Constantine to Pope Melchiades in 312, — a 
donation which was confirmed to St. Sylvester, in whose 
reign the first basilica was built here, and consecrated on 
November 9, 324, Constantine having laboured with his 
own hands at the work. This basilicar was overthrown by 
an earthquake in 896, but was rebuilt by Sergius III. 
(904 — 11), being then dedicated to St. John the Baptist. 
This second basilica, whose glories are alluded to by 



Dante, — 



" Quando Laterano 

Alle cose mortale ando di sopra." 

Paradiso, xxxi. 



was of the greatest interest, but was almost entirely 
destroyed by fire in 1308. It was rebuilt, only to be 
again burnt down in 1360, when it remained for four years 

* It was near the Lateran, on the site of the gardens of Plautius Lateranus, that 
the famous statues of the Niobedes, attributed to Scopus, now at Florence, were 
found. The fine tomb of the Plautii is a striking object on the road to Tivoli. 



398 WALKS IN ROME 

in utter ruin, in which state it was seen and mourned over 
by Petrarch. The fourth restoration of the basiUca was due 
to Urban V. (1362 — 70), but it has since undergone a series 
of mutilations and modernizations, which have deplorably 
injured it. The west front still retains the inscription 
" Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia, Omnium urbis et orbis 
Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput ; " the Chapter of the Lateran 
still takes precedence even over that of St. Peter's ; and 
every newly elected Pope comes hither for his coronation. 

"St. J. Lateran est regard^ comme le siege du patriarchat romain. 
A St. Pierre le pape est souverain pontife. A St. J. Lateran il est 
eveque de Rome. Quand le pape est elu, il vient a St. J. Lateran 
prendre possession de son siege comme eveque de Rome." — A. Die Pays. 

The west end of the basilica is in part a remnant of the 
building of the tenth century, and has tsvo quaint towers 
(rebuilt by Sixtus IV.) at the end of the transept, and a 
rich frieze of ten-a-cotta. The church is entered from the 
transept by a portico, ending in a gloomy chapel which 
contains a statue of Henry IV., by Niccolo Cordieri. The 
transept — rich in colour from its basement of varied marbles, 
and its upper frescoes of the legendary history of Cons tan- 
tine — is by far the finest part of the basilica, which, as a 
whole, is infinitely inferior to Sta. INIaria Maggiore. The 
nave, consisting of five aisles, is of grand proportions, but 
has been hideously modernized under Borro?ni?ii, who has 
enclosed all its ancient columns, except two near the tribune, 
in tawdry plaster piers, in front of which are huge statues of 
the apostles ; the roof is gilt and gaudy, the tabernacle ugly 
and ill-proportioned, — only the ancient pavement of opus- 
alexandrinum is fine. Confessionals for different languages 
are placed here as in St. Peter's. The Taberfiade was erected 
by Urban V. in the fourteenth century. Four granite 
columns support a gothic canopy, decorated at its angles 
with canopied statuettes. Between these, on either side, are 
three much restored frescoes by Benii da Siena, those in 
central panels representing the Annunciation, the Cruci- 
fixion, the Coronation of the Virgin, and the Saviour as a 
shepherd (very beautifully treated) feeding his flock with 
corn. The skulls of SS. Peter and Paul are said to be 
preserved here. The altar encloses the greater part of the 
famous wooden table, saved at great risk of life from the 
conflagration of 1308, upon which St. Peter is supposed to 



ST. JOHN LATERAN. 399 

have celebrated mass in the house of Pudens.* The steps 
of the altar (at the top of which the Pope is installed) have 
an allegorical enamelled border with emblems of an asp, a 
dragon, a lion, and basihsk, in allusion to Psalm xci. 

In the confession, in front of the altar, is the bronze 
tomb of Martin V., Oddone Colonna (141 7 — 24), the wise 
and just pope who was elected at the Council of Constance 
to put an end to the schism which had long divided the 
papacy, and which had almost reduced the capital of the 
Church to ruins. A bronze slab bears his figure, in 
low-relief, and is a fine work of Antojiio Filarete, author of 
the bronze doors at St. Peter's. It bears the appropriate 
surname which was given to this justly-loved pope — 
" Temporum suorum felicitas." 

The tribune is of the time of Nicholas IV. (1287 — 1292). 
Above the arch is a grand mosaic head of the Saviour, 
attributed to the time of Constantine, and evidently of the 
fourth century, — of great interest on this spot, as comme- 
morating the vision of the Redeemer, who is said to have 
appeared here on the day of the consecration of the church 
by Sylvester and Constantine, looking down upon the 
people, and solemnly hallowing the work with his visible 
presence. The head, which is grand and sad in expression, 
is surrounded by six-winged seraphim. Below is an 
ornamented cross, above which hovers a dove — from whose 
beak, running down the cross, flow the waters which supply 
the four rivers of Paradise. The disciples, as harts 
(panting for the water-brooks) and sheep, flock to drink of 
the waters of life. . In the distance is the New Jerusalem, 
within which the Phcenix, the bird of eternity, is seated 
upon the tree of Life, guarded by an angel with a two-edged 
sword. Beside the cross stand, on the left, the Virgin with 
her hand resting on the head of the kneeling pope, 
Nicholas IV. ; St. Peter with a scroll inscribed, " Tu es 
Christus filius Dei vivi;" St. Paul with a scroll inscribed, 
"Salvatorem expectamus Dominum Jesum." On the right 
St. John the Baptist, St. John the EvangeHst, St. Andrew 
(all with their names). Between the first and second of 
these figures are others, on a smaller scale, of St. Francis and 
St. Anthony of Padua. All these persons are represented 
as walking in a flowery Paradise, in which the souls of the 

* See Sta. Pudeuziana, ch. x. 



400 WALKS IN ROME. 

blessed are besporting, and in front of which flows the 
Jordan. Below, between the windows, are figures of 
prophets, and (very small) of two Franciscans, who were 
the artists of the lower portion of the mosaic, as is shown 
by the inscriptions, "Jacobus Turriti, pictor, hoc opus fecit;" 
— " Fra Jacobus de Camerino socius magistri/' 

Behind the tribune, is all that remains internally of the 
architecture of the tenth century, in the vaulted passage 
called " Portico Leonino," from its founder, Leo I. It is 
supported on low marble and granite columns with Ionic 
and Corinthian capitals. Here are collected a variety of 
relics of the ancient basilica. On either side of the 
entrance are mosaic tablets, which relate to the building of 
the church. Then, on the right, is a curious kneeling 
statue of Pope Nicholas IV., Masci (1287 — 92). On the 
left, in the centre, is an altar, above which is an ancient 
crucifix, and on either side tenth century statues of SS. Peter 
and Paul. 

On the right is the entrance to the sacristy (whose inner 
bronze doors date from 1196), which contains an Annun- 
ciation by Sebastian del Fioinbo, and a sketch by Raphael 
for the Madonna, called " Delia Casa d'Alba," now at 
St. Petersburg ; also an ancient bas-relief, which represents 
the old and humble basilica of Pope Sergius. On the 
left, at the end of the passage, is a very handsome 
cinquecento ciborium, and near it the " Tabula Magna 
Lateranensis," containing the list of relics belonging to 
the church. 

Near this, opening from the transept, is the Capella del 
Coro, with handsome wooden stallwork. It contains a 
portrait of Martin V., by Scipmie Gaetani. 

The altar of the Sacrament, which closes the transept, 
has four fluted bronze columns, said to have been brought 
from Jerusalem by Titus, and to be hollow and filled with 
earth from Palestine.* The last chapel in the left aisle is 
the Corsini Chapel., erected in 1729 in honour of St. Andrea 
Corsini, from designs of Alessandro Galilei. It is in the 
form of a Greek cross, and ranks next to the Borghese 
Chapel in the richness of its marble decoration. The 

* These columns are mentioned in the thirteenth century list of Lateran relics, 
which says that all the relics of the Temple at Jerusalem brought by Titus were 
preserved at the Lateran, 



CORSINI CHAPEL, ST. JOHN LA TERAN. 401 

mosaic altar-piece, representing S. Andrea Corsini, is a copy 
from Giiido. The founder of the chapel, Clement XII., 
Lorenzo Corsini (1730 — 40), is buried in a splendid por- 
phyry sarcophagus which he plundered from the Pantheon. 
Above it is a bronze statue of the pope.*^ Opposite is 
the tomb of Cardinal Neri Corsini, with a number of statues 
of the Bernini school 

Beneath the chapel is a vault lined with sarcophagi of the 
Corsini. Its -altar is surmounted by a magnificent Pieta — • 
in whose beautiful and impressive figures it is difficult to 
recognise a work of the usually coarse and theatrical artist 
Bernini. 

Of the many tombs of mediaeval popes which formerly existed in 
this basilica, t none remain, except the memorial slab and epitaph of 
Sylvester II., Gerbert (999 — 1003). This pope is said (by the chronicler 
Martin Polonus de Corenza) to have been a kind of magician, who 
obtained first the archbishopric of Rheims, then that of Ravenna, and 
then the papacy, by the aid of the devil, to whom, in return, he promised 
to belong after death. When he ascended the throne, he asked the 
devil how long he could reign, and the devil, as is his custom, answered 
by a double-entendre, " If you never enter Jerusalem, you will reign a 
long time." He occupied the throne for four years, one inonth, and ten 
days, when, one day, as he was officiating in the basilica of Sta. Croce 
in Gerusalemme, he saw that he had passed the fatal threshold, and that 
his death was impending. Overwhelmed with repentance, he confessed 
his backslidings before the people, and exhorted them to lay aside pride, 
to resist the temptations of the devil, and to lead a good life. After 
this he begged of his attendants to cut his body in pieces after he was 
dead, as he deserved, and to place it on a common cart, and bury it 
wherever the horses stopped of their own accord. Then was manifested 
the will of the Divine Providence, that repentant sinners should learn 
that their God preserves for them a place of paixlon even in this life, — 
for the horses went of their own accord to St. John Lateran, where he 
was buried. " Since then," says Platina, " the rattling of his bones, and 
the sweat, or rather the damp, with which his tomb becomes covered, 
has always been the infallible sign and forerunner of the death of a 
pope" ! 

Against the second pillar of the right aisle, counting from 
the west door, is a very interesting fresco of GiotW, ori- 
ginally one of many paintings executed by him for the 
loggia of the adjoining papal palace, whence the benedic- 

• There is a curious mosaic portrait of Clement XIT. in the Palazzo Corsini. 

t Sergius III. ob. 911; Agapetus 11. ob. 956; John XII. ob. 964 ; Sylvester II. 
ob. 1003; John XVIII. ob. 1009 : Alexandes II.. ob. 1073; Pascal II. ob. 1118 ; 
Calixtus II. ob. 1134 ; Honorius IT. ob. 1140 ; Celestine II. ob. 1143 ; Lucius II. 
ob. 1145 ; Anastasius IV. ob. 1154; Alexander III. ob. 1159; Clement III. ob. 1191 ; 
Celestine III. ob. 1198 ; Innocent V. ob. 1276— were buried at St. John Lateran, 
besides those later popes whose tombs still exist. 



402 WALKS IN ROME. 

tion and " plenary indulgence " were given in the jubilee 
year. It represents Boniface VIII. (Benedetto Gaetani, 
1294 — 1303), the founder of the jubilee, between two 
priests. 

"On y voit Boniface annon9ant au peuple le jubile. Le portrait du 
pape doit etre ressemblant. J'ai reconnu dans cette physiognomic, ou 
il y a plus dc finesse que de force, la statue que j'avais vue coucliee sur le 
tombeau de ce pape, dans les souterrains du Vatican." — Amph'e, Voyage 
Dantesqiie. 

Opening from this aisle are several chapels. The second 
is that of the newly established and rich family of Torlonia, 
which contains a marble Pieta, by Tenerani, and some 
handsome modern monuments. The third is that of the 
Massimi (designed by Giacomo della Porta), which has, as 
an altar-piece, the Crucifixion by Sermo7ieta. Beyond this, 
in the right aisle, are several remarkable tombs of cardinals, 
among which is the tomb of Cardinal Guissano, who died 
in 1287. The painters Cav. d'Arpino and Andrea Sacchi 
are buried in this church. 

Entered from the last chapel in the left aisle (by a door 
which the sacristan will open) is the beautiful twelfth century 
Cloister of the Monastery, surrounded by low arches sup- 
ported on exquisite inlaid and twisted columns, above which 
is a lovely frieze of coloured marbles. The court thus en- 
closed is a garden of roses ; in the centre is a well (adorned 
with crosses) of the tenth century, called the " Well of the 
Woman of Samaria." In the cloister is a collection of 
architectural and traditional relics, including a beautiful old 
white marble throne, inlaid with mosaics, a candelabrum 
resting on a lion, and several other exquisitely wrought 
details from the old basilica; also a porphyry slab upon 
which the soldiers are said to have cast lots for the seamless 
robe ; columns which were rent by the earthquake of the 
Crucifixion ; a slab, resting on pillars, shown as a measure of 
the height of Our Saviour,'* and a smaller slab, also on pillars, 
of which it is said that it was once an altar, at which the 
officiating priest doubted of the Real Presence, when the 
wafer fell from his hand through die stone, leaving a round 
hole which still remains. 

* " Ces monuments, consncKs par la tradition, n'ont pas CtC juggs cepe.idant assez 
<(uthentiqiies pour ctre solennellement exposes i la V^nCration des fidiJles." — 
Goiiynerie. 



BASILICA OF THE LATERAL. 403 

Five General Councils have been held at the Lateran, 
viz. :— 

I. — March 19, 1 123, under Calixtus II., with regard to the In- 
vestiture. 
II. — April 18, 1 139, under Innocent II., to condemn the doctrines 
of Arnold of Brescia and Peter de Bruys, and to oppose the 
antipope Anacletus II. 

III. — March 5, 11 79, under Alexander III., to condemn the doc- 
trines of Waldenses and Albigenses, and to end the schism 
caused by Frederick Barbarossa. 

IV. — Nov. II, 1215, at which 400 bishops assembled under 
Innocent III., to condemn the Albigenses, and the heresies 
of the Abbot Joachim. 
V. — May 3, 1512, under Julius II. and Leo X., at which the 
Pragmatic Sanction was abolished, and a Concordat con- 
cluded between the Pope and Francis I. for the destruction 
of the liberties of the Gallican Church. 

It is in the basilica of the Lateran that the Church places 
the first meeting between St. Francis and St. Dominic. 

** Une nuit, pendant que Dominique dormait, il lui sembla voir 
Jesus-Christ se preparant a exterminer les superbes, les voluptueux, les 
avares, lorsque tt)ut-a-coup la Vierge I'apaisa en lui pi-esentant deux 
hommes: I'un d'eux lui-meme ; quant a I'autre, il ne le connaissait 
pas ; mais le lendemain, la premiere personne qu'il aper9ut, en entrant 
au Latran, fut I'incomiu qui lui etait apparu en songe. II etait convert 
de haillons et priait avec ferveur. Dominique se precipita dons ses bras, 
et I'embrassant avec effusion : ' Tu es mon compagnon,' lui dit-il ; ' nous 
courons la meme carriere, demeurons ensemble, et aucun ennemi ne 
prevaudra contre nous.' Et, a partir de ce moment, dit la legende, ils 
n'eurent plus qu'un ooeur et qu'une ame dans le Seigneur. Ce pauvre, ce 
mendiant, etait saint Fran9ois d'Assise." — Goimierie, Rome Chretietme. 

Issuing from the west door of the basilica, we find 
ourselves in a wide portico, one of whose five doors is 
a Porta Santa. At the end, is appropriately placed an 
ancient marble statue of Constantine, who is in the dress 
of a Roman warrior, bearing the labartwt, or standard of 
the cross, which is here represented as a lance surmounted 
by the monogram of Christ. From this portico we look 
down upon one of the most beautiful and characteristic 
views in Rome. On one side are the Alban Hills, blue in 
morning, or purple in evening light, sprinkled with white 
villages of historic interest — Albano, Rocca di Papa, 
Marino, Frescati, Colonna ; on the other side are the 
Sabine Mountains, tipped with snow ; in the middle dis- 
tance the long, golden-hued lines of aqueducts stretch 
away over the plain, till they are lost in the pink haze, 



40| WALK'S IN ROME. 

and nearer still are the desolate basilica of Santa Croce, 
the fruit gardens of the Villa Wolkonski, interspersed with 
rugged fragments of massive brickwork, and the glorious 
old walls of the city itself. The road at our feet is the Via 
Appia Nuova, which leads to Naples, and which imme- 
diately passes through the modern gate of Rome, known as 
the Porta San Giova7ini (built in the sixteenth century by 
Gregory XIII.). Nearer to us, on the right, is an ancient 
gateway, the finest on the Aurelian wall, bricked up by 
Ladislaus, king of Naples, in 1408. By this gate, known as 
the Porta Asinaria, from the family of the Asinarii, Belisarius 
entered Rome in 505, and Totila, through the treachery of 
the Isaurian Guard, in 546. Here also, in 1084, Henry 
IV. entered Rome against Hildebrand with his anti-pope 
Guibert ; and, a few years after, the name of the gate itself 
was changed to Porta Perusta, in consequence of the injuries 
it received from Robert Guiscard, who came to the rescue 
of the lawful pontiff. 

The broad open space which we see beneath the steps 
was the favourite walk of the mediaeval popes. 

"The splendid palace of the Lateran reflected the rays of the evening 
sun, as Francis of Assisi with two or three of his disciples approached 
it to obtain the papal sanction for the rales of his new Order. A group 
of churchmen in sumptuous apparel were traversing with slow and 
measured steps its lofty terrace, then called 'the Mirror,' as if afraid to 
overtake him who preceded them, in a dress studiously simple, and with 
a countenance wrapped in earnest meditation. Unruffled by passion, 
and yet elate with conscious power, that eagle eye, and those capacious 
brows, announced him the lord of a dominion which might have satis- 
fied the pride of Diogenes, and th-e ambition of Alexander. Since the 
Tugurium was built on the Capitoline, no greater monarch had ever 
called the seven hills his own. But, in his pontificate, no era had 
occurred more arduous than that in which Innocent III. saw the men- 
dicants of Assisi prostrate at his feet' The interruption was as un- 
welcome as it was abrupt ; as he gazed at the squalid dress and faces of 
his suitors, and observed their bare and unwashed feet, his lip curled 
with disdain, and sternly commanding them to withdraw, he seemed 
again to retire from the outer world into some of the deep recesses of 
that capacious mind. Francis and his companions betook themselves to 
prayer ; Innocent to his couch. There (says the legend) he dreamed 
that a palm-tree sprouted up from the ground beneath his feet, and, 
swiftly shooting up into the heavens, cast her boughs on every side, a 
shelter from the heat, and a refreshment to the weary. The vision of 
the night dictated the policy of the morning, and assured Innocent that, 
under his fostering care, the Franciscan palm would strike deep her 
roots, and expand her foliage on every side, in the vineyard of the 
Church." — Stephens' St. Fraticis 0/ Assisi. 



ANCIENT PALACE OF THE LATER AN. 405 

The western faQade of the basilica, built by Alessandro 
Galilei in 1734, has a fine effect at a distance, but the 
statues of Christ and the apostles which line its parapet 
are too large for its proportions. 

The ancient Palace of the Lateran was the residence of the 
popes for nearly 1000 years. Almost all the events affect- 
ing the private lives of a vast line of ecclesiastical sovereigns 
happened within its walls. Plundered in each successive 
invasion, stricken with malaria during the autumn months, 
and often partially burnt, it was finally destroyed by the 
great enemy of Roman antiquities, Sixtus V. Among the 
scenes which occurred within its walls, perhaps the most 
terrible was that when John X., the completer of the Lateran 
basilica, was invaded here by Marozia, who was beginning 
to seize the chief power in Rome, and who carried the pope 
off prisoner to St. Angelo, after he had seen his brother 
Peter murdered before his eyes in the hall of the pontifical 
palace. 

The only remnants preserved of this famous building are 
the private chapel of the popes, and the end wall of their 
dining-hall, known as the T?'ictinmfn, which contains a copy, 
erected by Benedict XIV., of the ancient mosaic of the 
time of I.eo III. which formerly existed here, and the 
remains of which are preserved in the Vatican. 

"In this mosaic, Hallam (Middle Ages) sees proof that the author- 
ity of the Greek Emperor was not entirely abrogated at Rome till long 
after the period of papal aggrandisement by Pepin and his son, but 
he is warranted by no probabilities in concluding that Constantine V., 
whose reign began A.D. 780, is intended by the emperor kneeling with 
St. Peter or Pope Sylvester." — Hemans' Ancient Christian Art. 

Professor Bryce finds two paintings in which the theory 
of the mediaeval empire is unmistakeably set forth ; one of 
them in Rome, the other in Florence (a fresco in the 
chapter-house of S. M. Novella). 

"The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran triclinium, 
constructed by Pope Leo III., about A.D. 800, and an exact copy of 
which, made by the order of Sixtus V., may still be seen over against 
the fa9ade of St. John Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state 
banqueting-hall of the popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the 
finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill across the 
green ridges of the Campagna to the olive groves of Tivoli and the 
glistering crags and snow-capped summits of the Umbrian and Sabine 
Apennine. It represents in the centre Christ surrounded by the apo- 
stles, whom He is sending forth to preach the gospel ; one hand is 



4o6 WALKS AV ROME. 

extended to bless, the other holds a book with the words * Pax vobis.' 
Below and Lo the right Christ is depicted again, and this time sitting: on 
His right hand kneels Pope Sylvester, on His left the Emperor Constan- 
tine ; to the one He gives the keys of heaven and hell, to the other a 
banner surmounted by a cross. In the group on the opposite, that is, 
on the left side of the arch, we see the Apostle Peter seated, before 
whom in like manner kneel Pope Leo IH. and Charles the Emperor; 
the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. Peter, himself grasping 
the keys, gives to Leo the pallium of an archbishop, to Charles the 
banner of the Christian army. The inscription is ' Beatus Petrus dona 
vitam Leoni P. Pet victoriam Carulo regi dona ; ' while round the arch 
is written, ' Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax omnibus bonge 
voluntatis.' 

"The order and natm-e of the ideas here symbolized is sufficiently clear. 
First comes the revelation of the gospel, and the divine commission to 
gather all men into its fold. Next, the institution, at the memorable 
era of Constantine's conversion, of the two powers by which the Chris- 
tian people is to be respectively taught and governed. Thirdly, we are 
shown the permanent Vicar of God, the apostle who keeps the keys of 
heaven and hell, re-establishing these same powers on a new and firmer 
basis. The badge of ecclesiastical supremacy he gives to Leo as the 
spiritual head of the faithful on earth, the banner of the Church 
militant to Charles, ^'ho is to maintain her cause against heretics and 
infidels." — y. Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, ch. vii. pp. 117, 118, 3rd 
ed., 1 87 1. 

In the building beliind the Triclinium, attached to a con- 
vent of Passionist monks, and erected by Fontana for 
Sixtus v., is preserved the Safifa Scala. This famous stair- 
case, supposed to be that of the house of Pilate, ascended 
and descended by our Saviour, is said to have been brought 
from Jerusalem by Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, 
and has been regarded with especial reverence by the Roman 
Church for 1500 years. In 897 it was injured and partially 
thrown down by an earthquake, but was re-erected in the 
old Lateran palace, w^hence it was removed to its pre- 
sent site on the demolition of that venerable building. 
Clement XII. caused the steps to be covered by a wooden 
casing, which has since been repeatedly worn out by the 
knees of ascending pilgrims. Apertures are left, through 
which the marble steps can be seen ; two of them are said 
to be stained with the blood of the Saviour ! 

At the foot of the stairs, within the atrium, are fine sculp- 
tures of Giacometti, representing the " Ecce Homo," — and 
the " Kiss of Judas," purchased and placed here by 
Pius IX. 

Between these statues the pilgrims kneel to commence 



THE SANTA SCALA. 407 

the ascent of the Santa Scala. The effect of the staircase 
(especially on Fridays in Lent, and most of all on Good 
Friday), with the figures ascending on their knees in the 
dim light, and the dark vaulted ceiling covered with faded 
frescoes, is exceedingly picturesque. 

"Reason may condemn, but feeling cannot resist the claim to rever- 
ential sympathy in the spectacle daily presented by the Santa Scala. 
Numerous indulgences have been granted by different popes to those 
who ascend it with prayer at each step. Whilst kneeling upon these 
stairs public penance used to be performed in the days of the Church's 
more rigorous discipline ; as the saintly matron Fabiola there appeared 
a penitent before the public gaze, in sackcloth and ashes, A.D. 390. 

There is no day on which worshippers may not be seen 

slowly ascending those stairs ; but it is during Holy Week the concourse 
is at its height ; and on Good Friday I have seen this structure com- 
pletely covered by the multitude, like a swarm of bees settling on 
flowers ! " — Nemans' Ancient Sacred Art. 

"Brother Martin Luther went to accomplish the ascent of the Santa 
Scala — the Holy Staircase — which once, they say, formed part of 
Pilate's house. He slowly mounted step after step of the hard stone, 
worn into hollows by the knees of penitents and pilgrims. An indulg- 
ence for a thousand years — indulgence from penance — is attached to 
this act of devotion. Patiently he crept half-way up the staircase, when 
he suddenly stood erect, lifted his face heavenward, and, in another 
moment, turned and walked slowly down again. 

" He said that, as he was toiling up, a voice as if from heaven, seemed 
to whisper to him the old, well-known words, which had been his battle- 
cry in so many a victorious combat, — 'The just shall live by faith.' 

" He seemed awakened, as if from a nightmare, and restored to him- 
self He dared not creep up another step; but, rising from his knees, 
he stood upright, like a man suddenly loosed from bonds and fetters, 
and with the firm step of a freeman, he descended the staircase, and 
walked from the place." — Schonberg-Coita C/u-onicles. 

" Did the feet of the Saviour actually tread these steps ? Are these 
reliques really portions of his cross, crown of thorns, &c., or is all this 
fictitious ? To me it is all one. 

" * He is not here, he is risen ! ' said the angel at the tomb. The 
worship of the bodily covering which the spirit has cast off belongs to 
the soul still in the larva condition ; and the ascending of the Scala 
Santa on the knees is too convenient a mode for obtaining the forgive- 
ness of sins, and at the same time a hindrance upon the only true way." 
— Frederika Bremer. 

Ascending one of the lateral staircases — no foot must 
touch the Santa Scala — we reach the outside of the Sancta 
Sanctorum, a chapel held so intensely sacred that none but 
the pope can officiate at its altar, and that it is 7iever open 
to others, except on the mOming before Palm Sunday, when 
the canons of the Lateran come hither to worship, in solemn 



4o8 WALK'S AV ROME. 

procession, with torches and a veiled crucifix, and, even 
then, none but the clergy are allowed to pass its threshold. 
The origin of the sanctuary is lost in antiquity, but it was 
the private chapel of the mediaeval popes in the old palace, 
and is known to have existed already, dedicated to St. 
Laurence in the time of Pelagius I. (578 — 590), who de- 
posited here some relics of St. Andrew and St. Luke. It 
was restored by Honorius III. in 12 16, and almost rebuilt 
by Nicholas III. in 1277. 

It is permitted to gaze through a grating upon the pic- 
turesque glories of the interior, which are chiefly of the 
thirteenth century. The altar is in a recess, supported by 
two porphyry columns. Above it a beautiful silver taber- 
nacle, presented by Innocent III. (1198 — 1216), to con- 
tain the great relic, which invests the chapel with its pe- 
culiar sanctity, — a portrait of our Saviour (placed here by 
Stephen III. in 752), held by the Roman Church as 
authentic, — to have been begun by St. Luke and finished 
by an angel, whence the name by which it is known, 
'^ Acheirotopeton," or, the "picture made without hands." 

* * The different theories as to the acheirotopeton picture, and the 
manner in which it reached this city, are stated with naivete by Maroni — ■ 
?,<?., that the apostles and the Madonna, meeting after the ascension, 
resolved to order a portrait of the Crucified, for satisfying the desire 
of the faithful, and commissioned St. Luke to execute the task ; that 
after three days' prayer and fasting, such a portrait was drawn in outline 
by that artist, but, before he had begun to colour, the tints were found 
to have been filled in by invisible hands ; that this picture was brought 
from Jerusalem to Rome, either by, St. Peter, or by Titus (together with 
the sacred spoils of the temple) ; or else expedited hither in a miracu- 
lous voyage of only twenty-four hours by S. Germanus, patriarch of 
Constantinople, who desired thus to save such a treasure from the out- 
rages of the Iconoclasts ; and that, about a.d. 726, Pope Gregory II., 
apprised of its arrival at the mouth of the Tiber by revelation, proceeded 
to carry it thence, with due escort, to Rome ; since which advent it has 
remained in the Sancta Sanctomm." — Hemans Mediceval Christian 
Art 

Above the altar is, in gilt letters, the inscription, " non est 
in tota sanctior urbe locus." Higher up, under gothic arches, 
and between twisted columns, are pictures of sainted popes 
and martyrs, but these have been so much retouched as to 
have lost their interest. The gratings here are those of the 
relic chamber, which contains the reputed sandals of Our 
Saviour, fragments of the true cross, &€. On the ceiling is 



PALACE OF THE LATERAiV. 409 

a grand mosaic, — a head of Our Saviour widiin a nimbus, 
sustained by six-winged seraphim — ascribed to the eighth 
century. The sill in front of the screen is covered with 
money, thrown in as offerings by the pilgrims. 

The chapel was once much larger. Its architect was pro- 
bably Deodatus Cosmati. An inscription near the door 
tells us, " Magister Cosmatus fecit hoc opus." 

Here, in the time when the Lateran palace was inhabited, 
the feet of twelve sub-deacons were annually washed by the 
pope on Holy Thursday. On the Feast of the Assumption 
the sacred picture used to be borne in triumph through the 
city, halting in the Forum, ^where the feet of the pope 
were washed in perfumed waters on the steps of Sta. Maria 
Nuova, and the " Kyrie Eleison " was chaunted a hundred 
times. This custom was abolished by Pius V. in 1566, 

The Modern Palace of the Late^-aii was built from designs 
of Fontana by Sixtus V. In 1693 Innocent XII. turned 
it into a hospital, — in 1438 Gregory XVI. appropriated 
it as a museum. The entrance faces the obelisk in the 
Piazza di San Giovanni. The palace is always shown, but 
the terrible cold which pervades it makes it a dangerous 
place except in the late spring months, and a visit to it is 
often productive of fever. 

The ground floor is the principal receptacle for antiqui- 
ties, found at Rome within the last few years. It contains 
a number of very beautiful sarcophagi and bas-reliefs. 

Entering under the corridor on the right, the most 
remarkable objects are : — 

' \si Room. — 
Left wall : 

Relief of the Abduction of Helen. 
Right Wall : 

High relief of two pugilists, * Dares and Entellus.' 

Grand relief of Trajan followed by senators, from the Forum 

of Trajan. 
The sacred oak of Jupiter, with figures. 
Bust of Marcus Aurelius. 

2nd Room.— 

Beautiful architectural fragments, chiefly from the Forum of 
Trajan. 

-s^rd Room. — 
Entrance Wall : 

Statue of .Flsculapius. 



4IO • WALKS IN ROME. 

Right Wall : 

Statue of Antinous, called the Braschi, found at Palestrina. 
Bought from the Braschi family by Gregory XVI. for 
12,000 scudi. 
Wall of Egress : 

Sarcophagus of a child, with a relief representing pugilists. 

^h Room. — 
Entrance Wall : 

Greek relief of Medea and the daughters of Peleus. 

Above (one of a number of busts), 762, Beautiful head of % 
Dryad. 

Statue of Germanicus. 
Right Wall : 

Statue of Mars. 
Wall of Egress : 

Copy of the Faun of Praxiteles. 
In the Centre : 

A fine vase of Lumachella. 

A passage is crossed to the 

^th Roo7n. — 
In the Cei^tre : 

1. Sacrifice of Mithras. 

2. A stag of basalt. 

3. A cow. 
Right Wall : 

Sepulchral urn, with a curious relief representing children and 
cock-fighting. 

tth Room. — 

An interesting collection of statues, from Cervetri (Caere), 
including those of Tiberius and Claudius ; between them 
Agrippina, sixth wife of Claudius, — and others less certain. 
Between the Windows : 

Drusilla, sister of Claudius, and, on the wall, part of her 
epitaph. 

1th Room. — 

Right Wall: 

Faun dancing, — found near Sta. Eucia in Selce. 
Facing the Entrance : 

A grand statue of Sophocles (the gem of the collection), found 

at Terracina, 1838. Given by the Antcnelli family. 

"Sophocle, dans une pose aisce et fiere, un pied en avant, un bras 

envcloppe dans son manteau qu'il serre contre son corps, contemple 

avec une majestueuse screnite la nature humaine et la domine d'un 

regard sur et Iranquille." — Ampere, Hist. Roniy, iii, 573. 



PALACE OF THE LATER A A'. 411 

8//; Room. — 

Statue of Neptune, from Porto — the legs and arms restored. 

9M Room. — 

Architectural fragments from the Via Appia and Forum. 

loth Room. — 

A series of interesting reliefs, found 1848, at the tomb of the 
Aterii at Centocellse, representing the preparations for the 
funeral solemnities of a great Roman lady. 
Entrance Wall : 

The building of the sepulchre. A curious machine for raising 
heavy stones is introduced. 
Right Wall : 

The body of the dead surrounded by burning torches, Xhi 
mourners tearing their hair and beating their breasts. 
Wall of Egress : 

Showing sevei'&.l Roman buildings which the funeral proces- 
sion would pass, — among them the Coliseum and the Arch of 
Titus — inscribed, " Arcus in sacra via summa." 
Signor Rosa has considered this last relief of great importance, as 
indicating by the different monuments the route which a well-ordered 
funeral procession ought to pursue. 

A second passage is crossed to the 

11th Room. — 

Containing several fine sarcophagi. 

\2t/i Room. — 

Entrance Wall : 

Sarcophagus, with the story of Orestes. 
Right Wall : 

Sarcophagus decorated with Cupids bearing garlands, and 
supporting a head of Augustus. 
Wall of Egress : 

Sarcophagus representing the destruction of the children of 
Niobe. 

13//? Room. — 

Entrance Wall : 

Statue of C. Laelius Satuminus. 
Tn the Centre : 

Sarcophagus of P. Coecilius Vallianus, representing a funeral 
banquet. 
Left Wall : 

Unfinished statue of a captive barbarian, with sculptor's marks 
remaining, to guide the workman's chisel. 



412 WALKS IN ROME, 

\^th Room. — 

This and the next room are devoted to objects recently found 
in the excavations at Ostia. 
Left Wall : 

Mosaic in a niche. 

\^th Room. — 

In the Centre : 

Reclining statue of Atys. 
Right Wall : 

Frescoes of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, from a tomb at 
Ostia. 

The Christian Museum, founded by Pius IX., and ar- 
ranged by Padre Marchi and the CavaHere Rossi, is of great 
interest. In the first hall is a statue of Christ by Sosnoiusky, 
and in the wall behind it three mosaics, — two from the 
catacombs, that in the centre — of Christ with SS. Peter and 
Paul — from the old St, Peter's. Hence we ascend a stair- 
case lined with Christian sarcophagi. At the foot are two 
statues of the Good Shepherd. 

** Une des compositions de Calamis ne doit pas etre oubliee a Rome, 
car ce sujet paien a ete adopte par I'art chretien des premiers temps. 
LyCS representations du Bon Pasteur rapportant la brebis, expressions 
touchante de la misericorde divine, ont leur origine dans le Merciire 
porte-belier (Criophore). Quelquefois c'est un berger qui porte un 
belier, une brebis ou un agneau ; I'on se rapproche ainsi a I'idee du bon 
pasteur. En general, le bon pasteur, dans les monuments chretiens, 
porte une brebis, la brebis egaree de I'l^vangile ; mais quelquefois aussi 
il porte U7i belier, et alors le souvenir de I'original paien dans la compo- 
sition chretienne est manifeste." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 256. 

The sarcophagus on the left, which tells the story of 
Jonah, is especially fine. The corridor above is also lined 
with sarcophagi. The best are on the left; of these the 
most remarkable are, the ist, the marriage at Cana ; 4th, the 
Good Shepherd repeated several times among vines, with 
cherubs gathering the grapes ; 7th, a sarcophagus with a 
canopy supported by two pavonazzetto columns, and on the 
wall behind, frescoes of the Good Shepherd, &c. At the 
raised end of the corridor is the seated statue of Hippolytus, 
Bishop of Porto in the third century (the upper part a restor- 
ation), found in the Catacomb of Sta. Cyriaca, and moved 
hither from the Vatican Library ; upon the chair is engraved 
the celebrated Paschal Calendvar, which is supposed to settle 



PICTURE GALLERY OF THE LATER AN. 413 

the unorthodoxy of those early Christians who kept Easter 
at the same time as the Jews. 

Hence, three rooms Hned with drawings from the paint- 
ings in the different catacombs, lead to, — 

The Picture Gallery. 
\st Roojn. — 
Entrance Wall: 

Cartoon of stoning of Stephen : Giulio Romano. 
Below this is the celebrated mosaic called Asarotos, representing an 
unswept floor after a banquet. It is inscribed with the name of its 
artist, ILeraditiis, but is a copy from one of the two famous mosaics of 
Sosus of Pergamus (the other is " Pliny's Doves "). It was found on the 
Aventine in 1833 in the gardens of Servilius, and "probably adorned 
a dining-room where Caesar may have supped with Servilia, the sister of 
Ctito, and mother of Brutus." A similar pavement is alluded to by 
Statins : — 

" Varias ubi picta per artes 
Gaudet humus superare novis asarota figuris." 

Sylv. i. 3, 55- 
Left Wall 

Christ and St. Thomas — a cartoon: Camuccini. 
Window Wall : 

The tirst sketch for the famous fresco of the Descent from the 
Cross at the Trinitade' Monti: Daniele da Volterra. 

On the right is the entrance of the 

2nd Room, — 
Entrance Wall : 

Annunciation : Cav. d'' Arpmo. 
Right Wall : 

George IV. of England (most strangely out of place) : 
Lazvrence. 
Wall of Egress: 

Assumption of the Virgin : After Guercino. 

From the comer of this room, on the right, a staircase 
leads to a gallery, whence one may look down upon the huge 
and hideous mosaic pavement — with portraits Of twenty-eight 
athletes — found in the Baths of Caracalla in 1822. 

" Les gladiateurs de la mosaique de Saint Jean de Latran ont re9U la 
forte alimentation qu'on donnait a leurs pareils ; ils ont bien cet air de 
resolution brutale que devaient avoir ceux qui pronon^aient ce feroce 
serment que nous a conserve Petrone : 'Nous jurons d'obeir a notre 
maitre Eumolpe, qu'il nous ordonne de nous laisser bruler, enchainer, 
frapper, tuer par le i^x ou autrement; et comme vrais gladiateurs, 
nous devouons a notre maitre nos corps et nosvies.'" — Ampere^ Hist. 
^Rom. iv. 33. 



^14 WALKS IN ROME. 

On the left of ist room is the 

2,rd Room. — 
Entrance Wall: 

Madonna with SS. Peter, Dominic, and Anthony on the right, 
and SS. John Baptist, Laurence, and Francis on the left : 
Marco Palmezzaiio di Forli, 1 537. 
In the Left Corner: 

Madonna and Saints: Carlo Crlvelli, 1482. 
Left Wall : 

St. Thomas receiving the girdle of the Virgin (the Sacra 
Cintola of Prato) — with a predella : Benozzo Gozzoli. 
Wall of Egress : 

Madonna with St. John Baptist and St. Jerome : Pahnezzano. 

/\th Room. — 
Entrance Wall : 

Sixtus V. as Cardinal : Sassoferratt 

Madonna : Carlo Crivelli, 1482 — very highly finished. 
Left Wall : 

Sixtus V. as Pope : Domenichino (?). 

Two Gobelins from pictures of Fra Bartolommeo at the 
Quirinal. 
Wall of Egress : 

Christ with the Tribute Money : Caravaggio. 

^th Room. — 
Entrance Wall : 

Entombment : Venetian School. 
Left Wall : 

Greek Baptism : Pietro Nocchiy 1840. 
Wall of Egress : 

Holy Family : Andrea del Sarto. 

6th Room. — 

Entrance Wall : 

Baptism of Christ : Cesare da Sesto. 
Left Wall : 

SS. Agnes and Emerentiana : Litca Signorelli ; Annuncia- 
tion : F. Francia ; SS. Laurence and Benedict (very pe- 
culiar, as scarcely showing their faces at all, but magnificent 
in colour) : Luca Signorelli. 
Wall of Egress : 

Coronation of the Virgin, with wings, of saints, angels, and 
doves : F. Filippo Lippi. 
Between the Windows: S. Jerome, in tempera: Giovanni 
Sanzio, father of Raphael. 

1th Room. — 
Entrance Wall : 

Pagan sacrifice : Caravaggio (?). 



PICTURE GALLERY OF THE LATER AN, 415 

Left Wall : 

Altar-piece by Antonio da MuraTto^ 1464. 
Wall of Egress : 

Christ at Emmaus : Caravaggio. 

Zth Room. — 

An oil copy of the fresco of the Flagellation of SL Andrew by 
Domenichino, at S. Gregorio. 

<)th Room. — 

A set of beautiful terracotta busts and reliefs by Pettrich^ 
illustrative of North American Indian life. This room is 
called the Hall of Council, and is surrounded by fresco 
portraits of popes, and pictures allegorical of their arms, &c. 

The walls of the open galleries on this floor of the palace 
have been covered with early Christian inscriptions from the 
catacombs, which have been thus arranged in arches : — 

I — 3- Epitaphs of martyrs and others of temp. Damasus L (366 
to 384)- 

4 — 7. Dated inscriptions from 238 to 557. 

8 — 9. Inscriptions relating to doctrine. 

10. — Inscriptions relating to popes, presbyters, and deacons. 

II — 12. Inscriptions relating to simprle ecclesiastics. 

13. — Inscriptions of affection to relations and friends. 

14 — 16. Symbolical. 

17. — Simple epitaphs from different catacombs. 

On the third floor of the palace are casts from the bas- 
reliefs on the column of Trajan. 

Before leaving the Lateran altogether, we must notice 
amongst its early institutions, the famous school of music 
which existed here throughout the middle ages. 

"Gregory the Great, whose object it seems to have been to render 
religion a thing of the senses, was the founder of the music of the 
Church. He instituted the school for it in the Lateran, whence the 
Carlovingian monarchs obtained teachers of singing and organ-playing. 
The Frankish monks were sent thither for instruction." — Dyer's Hist, 
of the City of Rome. 

Opposite the palace is the entrance of the Villa Massimo 
Arsoli, to which admission may be obtained by a permesso 
given at the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. There is little 
to see here, however, except a casino beautifully decorated 
with scenes taken from the great Italian poets by the modern 
German artists, Schnorr, Kock, Ph. Veit, Overbeck, and 
Fiihrich. 

"Les sujets sont tires de Dante, de I'Arioste, et du Tasse. Dante a 
ete confide a Comel'us, I'Arioste a Schnorr, le Tasse a Overbeck, les 



4i6 WALKS IN ROME. 

■ trois plus celebres noms de cette ecole qui croit pouvoir remonter par 
une imitation savante a la naivete du xv^. siecle." — Auiph-e, Voyage 
Dantesque. 

Leading from the Piazza di San Giovanni to Sta. Maria 
Maggiore is the Via Immerulana, where, in the hollow, is 
the strange-looking Church of SS. Pieira e Marcel/mo, in 
which is preserved a miraculous painting of the Crucifixion ; 
the figure upon the cross is supposed to move the eyes, 
when regarded by the faithful. This picture, a small replica 
of the magnificent Guido at S. Lorenzo in Lucina, is shown, 
behind a grille, by a nun of Sta, Theresa, veiled from head 
to foot in blue, like an immovable pillar of blue drapery. 

" SS. Pietro e Marcellino stands in the valley beliind the Esquiline, 
In the long, lonely road between Sta. Maria Maggiore and the Lateran. 
SS. Peter Exorcista and Marcellinus are always represented together in 
priestly habits, bearing their palms. Their legend relates, that in the 
persecution under Diocletian they Avere cast into prisOn. Artemius, 
keeper of the dungeon, had a daughter named Paulina, and she fell 
sick ; and St. Peter offered to restore her to health, if her father would 
believe in the true God. And the jailer mocked him, saying, ' If I put 
thee into the deepest dungeon, and load thee with heavier chains, will 
thy God deliver thee ? If he doth, I will believe in him.' And Peter 
answered, ' Be it so, not out of regard to thee ; for it matters little to 
our God whether such an one as thou believe in him or not, but that 
the name of Christ may be glorified, and thyself confounded.' 

"And in the middle of the night Peter and Marcellinus, in white 
shining garments, entered the chamber of Artemius as he lay asleep, 
Avho, being struck with awe, fell down and worshipped the name of 
Christ ; and he, his wife, daughter, and three hundred others, were 
baptized. After this the two holy men were condemned to die for the 
faith, and the executioner was ordered fo lead them to a forest three 
miles from Rome, that the Christians might not discover their place of 
sepulture. And when he had brought them to a solitary thicket over- 
grown with brambles and thorns, he declared to them that they were 
to die, upon which they cheerfully fell to work and cleared away a 
space fit for the pui-pose, and dug the grave in which they were to be 
laid. Then they were beheaded (June 2), and died encouraging each 
other. 

"The fame of SS. Pietro e Marcellino is not confined to Rome. In 
the reign of Charlemagne they were venerated as martyrs throughout 
Italy and Gaul ; and Eginhai-d, the secretary of Charlemagne who 
married his daughter Emma, is said to have held them in particular 
honour. Every one, I believe, knows the beautiful story of Eginhard 
and Emma, — and the connection of these saints with them, as thtir 
chosen protectors, lends an interest to their solitary deserted church. 
In the Roma Sottcrranea of Bosio, p. 126, there is an ancient fragment 
found in the catacombs, which repix'sents St. Peter Exorcista, St. Mar- 
cellinus, and Paulina, standing together." — Mrs. Jameson. 



VIA LA TINA AND S. STEFANO. 417 

Behind the Santa Scala, a narrow lane leads to the Villa 
Wolkonski (a " permesso " may be obtained through your 
banker), a most beautiful garden, running along the edge of 
the hill, intersected by the broken arches of the Aqua 
Claudia, and possessing exquisite views over the Campagna, 
with its lines of aqueducts to the Alban and Sabine moun- 
tains. No one should omit to visit this villa. 

" Where the aqueducts, just about to enter the city, most nearly con- 
verge, and looking across the Campagna — which their arches only seem 
able to span — towards Albano and the hills, stands the Villa. Em- 
bosomed in olive and in ilex trees, it is rich in hoar cypresses, in urns, 
and in those pathetic fragments of old workmanship which an under- 
growth of violets and acanthus half hides, and half reveals." — Vera. 



About a mile beyond the Porta S. Giovanni, a road 
branches off on the left to the Porta Furba, an arch of the 
Aqua Felice, founded on the line of the Claudian and 
Marcian aqueducts. Artists may find a picturesque subject 
here in a pretty fountain, with a portion of the decaying 
aqueduct. Beyond the arch is the mound called Monte del 
Grano, which has been imagined to be the burial-place of 
Alexander Severus. Beyond this, the road (to Frescati) 
passes on the left the vast ruins, called Sette Bassi. 

The direct road — which leads to Albano — reaches, about 
two miles from the gate, a queer building, called the Casa 
del Diavolo, on the outside of which some rude frescoes 
testify to the popular belief as to its owner. Just beyond 
this a field track on the left leads to the Via Latina, of 
which a certain portion, paved with huge polygonal blocks 
of lava, is now laid bare. Here are some exceedingly inter- 
esting and well-preserved tombs, richly ornamented with 
painting and stucco. The view, looking back upon Rome, 
or forward to the long line of broken arches of the Claudian 
aqueduct, seen between these ruined sepulchres, is most 
striking and beautiful. 

Close by have been discovered remains of a villa of the 
Servilii, which afterwards belonged to the Asinarii. Here 
also, in 1858 (on the left of the Via Latina), Signor Fortu- 
nati discovered the long buried and forgotten Basilica of S. 
Stefano. It is recorded by Anastasius that this basilica was 
founded in the time of Leo I. (440 — 461) by Demetria, a 
lady who escaped from the siege by the Goths, with her 



4 1 8 IVALA'S AV R OME. 

mother, to Carthage, where she became a nun. It was 
restored by Leo III. at the end of the eighth century. The 
remains are interesting, though they do Httle more than 
show perfectly the substruction and plan of the ancient 
building. An inscription relating to the foundation of the 
church by Demetria has been found among the ruins. 

Not far from this is the Catacomb of the Santi-Quattro. 

Three and a half miles from Rome is the Osteria of Tavo- 
lato, near which is one of the most striking and picturesque 
portions of the Claudian Aqueduct. It is on the rising 
ground between this aqueduct and the road, that the Temple 
of Fortuna Muliebris is believed to have stood. This was 
the temple which Valeria, the sister of Publicola, and Vo- 
lumnia, the mother of Coriolanus, claimed to erect at their 
own expense, when the senate asked them to choose their 
recompense for having preserved Rome by their entreaties. 

"As Valeria, sister of Publicola, was sitting in the temple, as a sup- 
pliant before the image of Jupiter, Jupiter himself seemed to inspire her 
with a sudden thought, and she immediately rose, and called upon all 
the other noble ladies who were with her, to arise also, and she led them 
to the house of Volumnia, the mother of Caius (Coriolanus). There she 
found Virgilia, the wife of Caius, with his mother, and also his little 
children. Valeria then addressed Volumnia and Virgilia, and said, 
' Our coming here to you is our own doing ; neither the senate nor any 
mortal man have sent us; but the god in whose temple we were sitting 
as suppliants put it into our hearts, that we should come and ask you to 
join with us, women with women, without any aid of men, to win for 
our country a great deliverance, and for ourselves a name, glorious 
above all women, even above those Sabine wives in the old time, who 
stopped the battle between their husbands and their fathers. Come, then, 
with us to the camp of Caius, and let us pray to him to show us mercy.' 
Volumnia said, ' We will go with you : ' and Virgilia took her young 
children with her, and they all went to the camp of the enemy. 

" It was a sad and solemn sight to see this train of noble ladies, and 
the very Volscian soldiers stood in silence as they passed by, and pitied 
them and honoured them. They found Caius sitting on the general's 
seat, in the midst of the camp, and the Volscian chiefs were standing 
round him. When he first saw them he wondered what it could be; 
but presently he knew his mother, who was walking at the head of the 
train, and then he could not contain himself, but leapt down from his seat, 
and rar ^o meet her, and was going to kiss her. But she stopped him, 
and said, ' Ere thou kiss me, let me know whether I am speaking to an 
enemy or to my son ; whether I stand in thy camp as thy prisoner or 
thy mother ? ' Caius could not answer her ; and then she went on and 
said, * Must it be, then, that had I never borne a son, Rome never would 
have seen the camp of an enemy ; that had I remained childless, I 
should have died a free woman in a free city ? But I am too old to bear 
much longer either thy shame or my misery. Rather look to thy wife 



TEMPLE OF FCRTUNA MULIEBRIS. 419 

and children, whom, if thou persistest, thou art dooming to an un- 
timely death, or a long life of bondage.' Then Virgilia and his cliildren 
came up to him and kissed him, and all the noble ladies wept, and be- 
moaned their own fate and the fate of their country. At last Caius 
cried out, ' O mother, what hast thou done to me ? ' and he wrung her 
hand vehemently, and said, ' Mother, thine is the victory ; a happy 
victory for thee and for Rome, but shame and min to thy son,' Then 
he fell on her neck and embraced her, and he embraced his wife and 
his children, and sent them back to Rome ; and led away the army of 
the Volscians, and never afterwards attacked Rome any more. The 
Romans, as was right, honoured Volumnia and Valeria for their deed, 
and a temple was built and dedicated to ' Woman's Fortune,' just on 
the spot where Caius had yielded to his mother's words ; and the first 
priestess of the temple was Valeria, into whose heart Jupiter had first put 
the thought to go to Volumnia, and to call upon her to go out to the 
enemy's camp and entreat her son." — Arnold's Hist, of Rome, vol. i. 

** II y a peu de scenes dans I'histoire plus emouvantes que celle-la, et 
elle ne perd luen a la decoration du theatre ; en se pla9ant sur un terlre 
a quatre milles de Rome, pres de la voie Latine, dans un lieu ou il n'y a 
aujourd'hui que des tombeaux et des ruines, on pent se figurer le camp 
des Volsques, dont les armes et les tentes etincellent au soleil. Les mon- 
tagnes s'elevent a I'horizon. A travers la plaine ardente et poudreuse 
defile une foule voilee dont les gemissements retentissent dans le silence 
de la campagne romaine. Bientot Coriolan est entoure de cette mul- 
titude suppliante dont les plaintes, les cris, devaient avoir la vivacite des 
demonstrations passionees des Romaines de nos jours. Coriolan eut re- 
siste a tout ce bruit, il eut peut-etre resiste aux larmes de sa femme et 
aux caresses de ses enfants ; il ne resista pas a la severite de sa mere. 

" Le soir, par un glorieux coucherdu soleil de Rome qui eclaire leur 
joie, la procession triomphante s'eloigne en adressant un chant de recon- 
naissance aux dieux, et lui se retire dans sa tente, etonne d' avoir pu 
ceder." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. ii. 402. 

The return drive to Rome may be varied by turning to 
the right about a mile beyond this, into a lane which leads 
past the so-called temple of Bacchus to the Via Appia 
Vecchia, 



We may now follow the lines of white mulberry-trees 
across the open space in front of St. John Lateran, which is 
a continuation of the ancient papal promenade of " the 
Mirror," to Sta. Croce. The sister basilicas look at each 
other, and at Sta, Maria Maggiore, down avenues of trees. 
On the left are the walls of Rome, upon which run the 
arches of the Aqua Marcia. 

"Few Roman churches are set within so impressive a picture as 
Santa Croce, approached on every side through these solitudes of vine- 
yards and gardens, quiet roads, and long avenues of trees, that occupy 
such immense extent within the walls of Rome. The scene from the 



420 WALKS IN ROME. 

Latei'an, looking towards this basilica across tlie level common, betwjen 
lines of trees, with the distance of Campagna and mountains, the castel- 
lated walls, the arcades of the Claudian aqueduct, amid gardens and 
groves, is more than beautiful, full of memory and association. The 
other approach, by the unfrequented Via di Sta. Croce, presents the 
finest distances, seen through a foliage beyond the dusky towers of the 
Honorian walls, and a wide extent of slopes covered with vineyards, 
amid which stand at intervals some of those forlorn cottage farms, grey 
and dilapidated, that form characteristic features in Roman sceneiy. 
The majestic ruins of Minerva-Medica, the so-called temple of Venus 
and Cupid, the fragments of the baths of St. Helena, the Castrense 
Amphitheatre, the arches of the aqueduct, half concealed in c>'press 
and ivy, are objects which must increase the attractions of a walk to this 
sanctuary of the cross. But the exterior of the church is disappointing 
and inappropriate, retainingnothing antique except the square Lombardfc 
tower of the twelfth centur}% in storeys of narrow-arched windows, its 
brickwork ornamented with disks of coloured marble, and a canopy, 
with columns, near the summit, for a statue no longer in its place." — 
Heniajis' Catholic Italy, vol. i. 

The site of the Basilica of Sfa. Croce in Genisalemme 
was once occupied by the garden of Heliogabalus, and 
afterwards by the palace of the Empress Helena, mother of 
Constantine, whose residence here was known as the Pala- 
tium Sessorianum, whence the name of Sessorian, .sometimes 
given to the basilica. 

The church was probably once a hall in the palace of 
Helena, to which an apse was added by Constantine, in 
whose reign it was consecrated by Pope Sylvester. It was 
repaired by Gregory H. early in the eighth century ; the 
monastery was added by Benedict VII. about 975, and the 
whole was rebuilt by Lucius II. in 1144. The church was 
completely modernized by Benedict XIV. in the last century, 
and scarcely anything, except the tower, now remains exter- 
nally, which is even as old as the twelfth century. The fine 
columns of granite and bigio-lumachellato, which now adoni 
the facade, were plundered from the neighbouring temple in 
1744. 

The interior of the church is devoid of beauty, owing to 
modernizations. Four out of twelve fine granite columns, 
which divided its nave and aisles, are boxed up in senseless 
plaster piers. The high altar is adorned with an urn of green 
basalt, sculptured with lions' heads, which contains the 
bodies of SS. Anastasius and Csesarius. Two of tlic pillars 
of the baldacchino are of breccia-corallina. The fine 
frescoes of the tribune by Fi?ituricchio have been much 



STA. CROCE IN GERUSALEMME. 421 

retouched. They were executed under Alexander VI., on 
a commission from Cardinal Carvajal, Avho is himself repre- 
sented as kneeling before the cross, which is held by the 
Empress Helena. 

"The very important frescoes of the choir apsis of Sta. Croce (now 
much over-painted) are of Piuturicchio's better time. They represent 
the finding of the Cross, with a colossal Christ in a nimbus among 
angels above, — a figure full of wild grandeur." — Kjigler. 

" Near the entrance of the church is a valuable monument of the 
papal history of the tenth century, in a metrical epitaph to Benedict 
VII., recording his foundation of the adjoining monastery for monks, 
who were to sing day and night the praises of the Deity ; his cha- 
rities tu the poor ; and the deeds of the anti-pope Franco, called by 
Baronius (with play upon his assumed name Boniface) Malefacius, who 
usurped the Holy See, imprisoned and strangled the lawful Pope, 
Benedict VI., and pillaged the treasury of St. Peter's, but in one month 
was turned out and excommunicated, when he fied to Constantinople. 
The chronology of this epitaph is by the ancient system of Indictions, 
the death of the pope dated XII. Indiction, corresponding to the year 
984 : and the Latin style of the tenth century is curiously exemplified in 
lines relating to the anti-pope : 

'Hie primus repulit Franconis spurca superbi 
Culmina qui invasit sedis apostolicse 
Qui dominumque suum captum in castro habebat 
Careens interea auctis constrictus in uno 
Strangulatus ubi exuerat hominem.' " 

Hcuians Catholic Italy. 

The consecration of the Golden Rose, formerly sent to 
foreign princes, used to take place in this church. The 
principal observances here now are connected with the ex- 
hibition of the relics, of which the principal is the Title of 
the True Cross. 

"In 1492, when some repairs were ordered by Cardinal Mendoza, a 
niche was discovered near the summit of the apse, enclosed by a brick 
front, inscribed ' Titulus Crucis.' In it was a leaden coffer, containing 
an imperfect plank of wood, 2 inches thick, 1/4 palm long, I palm 
broad. On this, in letters more or less perfect, was the inscription in 
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, Jesus N'azarene King. It was venerated 
by Innocent VIII., with the college of cardinals, and enclosed by Men- 
do7a in the silver shrine, where it is exposed three times a year from the 
balcony. The relics are exposed on the 4th Sunday in Lent. On 
Good Friday the rites are more impressive here than in any other 
church, the procession of white-robed monks, and the deep toll of the 
bell announcing the display of the relics by the mitred abbot are very 
solemn, and it is surprising, that while crowds of strangers submit to be 
crushed in the Sistine, scarcely one visits this ancient basilica on that 
day." — He mans'' Catholic Italy. 

"The list of relics on the right of the apsis of Sta. Croce includes, 



422 WALKS IN- ROME. 

the finger of St. Thomas Apostle, with which he touched the most holy 
side of our Lord Jesus Christ ; one of the pieces of money with which 
the Jews paid the treachery of Judas ; great part of the veil and of the 
hair of the most blessed Virgin ; a mass of cinders and charcoal, united 
in the form of a loaf, with the fat of St. Lawrence, martyr ; one bottle 
of the most precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ ; another of the 
milk of the most .blessed Virgin ; a little piece of the stone where 
Christ was born ; a little piece of the stone where our Lord sate when 
he pardoned Mary Magdalen ; of the stone where our Lord wrote the 
law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai ; of the stone where reposed SS. 
Peter and Paul ; of the cotton which collected the blood of Christ ; of 
the manna which fed the Israelites ; of the rod of Aaron, which 
flourished in the desert ; of the relics of the eleven prophets ! " — Percy's 

R077ia7tisiH. 

Two Staircases near the tribune lead to the subterranean 
church, which has an altar with a pieta, and statues of SS. 
Peter and Paul of the twelfth century. Hence opens the 
chapel of Sta. Helena,* which women (by a perversion espe- 
cially strange in this case) are never allowed to enter except 
on the festival of the saint, August i8. It is built upon a 
soil composed of earth brought by the empress from Pales- 
tine. Her statue is over the altar. The vault has mosaics 
(originally erected under Valentinian HI., but restored by 
Ziuchi in 1593) representing, in ovals, a half-length figure of 
the Saviour ; the Evangelists and their symbols ; the Finding 
of the True Cross ; SS. Peter and Paul ; St. Sylvester, the 
conservator of the church ; and Sta. Helena, with Cardinal 
Carvajal kneeling before her. 

Here the feast of the " Invention of the True Cross " 
(May 3) is celebrated with great solemnity, when the hymns 
" Pange Lingua" and " Vexilla Regis " are sung, and the 
antiphon : — 

**0 Cross, more glorious than the stars, world famous, beauteous of 
aspect, holiest of things, which alone wast worthy to sustain the weight 
of the world : dear wood, dear nails, dear burden, bearing ; save those 
present assembled in thy praise to-day. Alleluia." 

And the collect :— 

'* O God, who by the glorious uplifting of the salvation-bearing cross, 
hast displayed the miracles of thy passion, grant that by the merit of 
that life-giving wood, we may attain the suffi-ages of eternal life, &c." 

• Sta. Helena is claimed as an English saint, and all the best authorities allow that 
she was born in England, — according to Gibbon, at York — according to others, at Col- 
chester, which town bears a> its arms a cross between three crowns, in alhision to this 
claim. Some say that she wa>^ an innkeeper's daughter, others that her father was a 
powerful Hrlt!s!i prince, Colliis w Coel. 



TOMB OF THE BAKER EURYSACES. 423 

The adjoining Monastery belongs to the Cistercians. Only 
part of one wing is ancient. The library formerly contained 
many curious MSS., but most of these were lost to the basilica, 
when the collection was removed to the Vatican during the 
French occupation and the exile of Pius VII. 

The garden of the monastery contains the ruin generally 
known as the Temple of Verms and Cupid, but considered 
by Dr. Braun to be the Sessorian Basilica or law-court, where 
the causes of slaves (who were allowed to appeal to no other 
court) were wont to be heard. Behind the monastery is the 
Amphitheatrui7i Castre?ise, attributed to the time of Nero, 
when it is supposed to have been erected for the games of 
two cohorts of soldiers, quartered near here. It is ingrafted 
into the line of the Honorian walls, and is best seen from the 
outside of the city. Its arches and pillars, with Corinthian 
capitals, are all of brick. 

(On the left of the Via Sta. Croce, which leads hence to 
Sta. Maria Maggiore, is the gate of the Villa Altieri, chiefly 
remarkable for its grand umbrella pine, the finest in the 
city. Further, on the right, is a tomb of unknown origin, 
now used as a farm-house and a wine-shop.) 

Turning to the right from the basilica, we follow a lane 
which leads beneath some fine brick arches of an aqueduct 
of the time of Nero, cited by Ampere,* as exemplifying the 
perfection to which architecture attained in the reign of this 
emperor, " by the quality of the bricks, and the excellence 
and small quantity of the cement." These ruins are popu- 
larly called the Baths of Sta. Helena. 

Passing these arches we find ourselves facing the Porta 
Maggiore, formed by two arches of the Claudian Aqueduct, 
formerly known as the Porta Labicana, and Porta Prenes- 
tina, of which the former was closed in the time of 
Honorius, and has never been re-opened. Three inscrip- 
tions remain, the first relating to the building of the aque- 
duct by the Emperor Tiberius Claudius ; — the second and 
third to its restoration by Vespasian and Titus. Above the 
Aqua Claudia flowed a second stream, the Anio Novus. 

Outside the gate, only lately disclosed, upon the removal 
of constructions of the time of Honorius (the fragments of 
those worth preserving are placed on the opposite wall), is 
the Tomb of the Baker Eurysaces, who was also one of the 

* Einp. ii. 43. 



424 WALKS IN ROME. 

inspectors of aqueducts. The tomb is attributed to the 
early years of the Empire. Its first storey is surmounted by 
the inscription : " Est hoc monumentum Marcei Vergilei 
EvRYSACES PiSTORis Redemptoris Apparet." Its sccond 
storey is composed of rows of the mortars used in baking, 
placed sideways, and supporting a frieze with bas-reliefs 
telling the story of a baker's work, from the bringing of the 
corn into the mill to its distribution as bread. In the front 
of the tomb was formerly a relief of the baker and his wife, 
with a sarcophagus, and the inscription : " fuit atistia 

UXOR MIHEI^FEMINA OPTVMA VEIXSIT QUOIVS CORPORIS 

RELIQUI^ — QUOD SUPERANT SUNT IN HOC PANARIO." This 

has been foolishly removed, and is now to be seen upon the 
opposite wall. 

From this gate many pleasant excursions may be taken. 
The direct road leads to Palestrina by Zagarolo, and at i^ 
mile from the gate passes, on the left, Torre Pig/iatarra, the 
tomb of Sta. Helena, whence the magnificent porphyiy 
sarcophagus, now in the Vatican, was removed. The name 
is derived from the pignatte, or earthen pots, used in the 
building. Beneath it is a catacomb, now closed. The 
adjoining Catacomb of SS. Pietro e Marcellino contains some 
well-preserved paintings ; the most interesting is that of the 
Divine Lamb on a mound (from which four rivers flow as 
in the mosaics of the ancient basilicas), with figures of 
Petrus, Gorgonius, Marcellinus, and Tiburtius. At three 
miles from the gate the road reaches Centoceiice, whence, 
near the desolate tower called Torre Pernice, there is a most 
picturesque view of the aqueduct Aqua Alexaiidr'ma, built 
by Alexander Severus, with a double line of arches crossing 
the hollow. At five miles, on the right, is the Borghese 
farm of Torre Nuova, with a fine group of old stone pines. 

The road which turns left from the gate leads by the Aqua 
Bollicante, where the Arvales sang their hymn, to the pic- 
turesque ruins of the Torre del Schiavi, the palace of the 
Emperors (iordian (a.d. 238), adjoining which are the re- 
mains of a round temple of Apollo. This is, perhaps, one 
of the most striking scenes in the Campagna and — backed 
by the violet mountains above Tivoli — is a favourite subject 
with artists. 

" Lcs (loiJien :, Ircs-j^raiKls personnages, furent de tres-petits cm- 



PONTE DI MONO.— GROTTOES OF CERBARA. 425 

pereurs. lis montrent ce qu'etait dtVenu I'aristocratie romaine de- 
generee. Le premier, honnete et pusillanime, comme le prouvent son 
election et sa mort, etait un peu replet et avait dans Fair du visage quel- 
que chose de solennel et de theatral {povipali vultu). II aimait et cul- 
tivait les lettres. Son fils egalement se fit quelque reputation en ce 
genre, grace surtout a sa bibliotlieque de soixante mille volumes ; mais 
il avait d'autres gouts encore que celui des livres : on lui donne jusqu'a 
vingt-deux concubines en titre, et de chacune d'elles, il eat trois ou 
quatre enfants. II menait une vie epicurienne dans ses jardins et sous 
des ombrages delicieux: c'etaient les jardins et les ombrages d'une villa 
magnifique que les Gordiens avaient sur la voie Prenestine, et dont 
Capitolin, au temps duquel elle existait encore, nous a laisse ime de- 
scription detaillee. Le peristyle etait forme de deux cents colonnes des 
marbres les plus precieux, le cipollin, le pavonazetto, le jaune et le 
rouge antiques. La villa renfermait trois basiliques et les thermes que 
ceux de Rome surpassaient a peine. Telle etait I'opulence d'une habi- 
tation privee vers le milieu du troisieme siecle de I'empire." — Ampen^ 
Emp. li. 328. 

The road which continues in a straight line from hence 
passes, on the left, the Torre Tre Teste. The eighth mile- 
stone is of historic interest, being described by Livy (v. 49) 
as the spot where the dictator Camillus overtook and exter- 
minated the army of Gauls who were retreating from Rome 
with the spoils of the Capitol. 

At the ninth mile is the Ponte di Nono, a magnificent old 
bridge with seven lofty arches of lapis-gabinus. This leads 
(twelve miles from Rome) to the dried-up lake and the ruins 
of Gabii (Castiglione), including that of the temple of Juno 
Gabina. 

*' Quique arva Gabinae 
Juuonis, gelidumque Anienem, et roscida rivis 
Hernica saxa colunt." 

Virgil, ^n. vii. 682. 

The road which branches off on the left leads (twelve miles 
from Rome) to Ltwghezza, the fine old castle of the Strozzi 
family, situated on the little river Osa. Hence a beautiful walk 
through a wood leads to Castello del Osa, the ruins of the 
ancient Col/atia, so celebrated from the tragedy of Lucretia. 
Two miles beyond the Torre dei Schiavi, on the left, is the 
fine castellated farm of Co'valetto, a property of the Bor- 
ghese. A field road of a mile and half, passing in front of 
this (practicable for carriages), leads to another fine old 
castellated farm (five miles from Rome), close to which are 
the extraordinary Grottoes of Cerbara, — a succession of 
romantic caves of great size, in the tufa rocks, from which 



426 WALKS IN ROME. 

the material of the Coliseum was excavated. Here the 
" Festa degli Artisti " is held in May, which is well worth 
seeing, — the artists in costume riding in procession, and 
holding games, amid these miniature Petra-like ravines. 
Beyond Cerbara are remains of a villa of Lucius Verus, and, 
on the bank of the Anio, the romantically-situated castle of 
^ustica. 

From the Porta Maggiore we may follow a lane along 
the inside of the wall, crossing the railway — whence there is 
a picturesque view of the temple of Minerva Medica — to 
The Porta S. Lorenzo, anciently called the Porta Tiburtina 
(the road to Tivoli passes through it), built in 402, by the 
Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, on the advice of Stilicho, 
as we learn from an inscription over the archway of the 
Marcian, Tepulan, and Julian Aqueducts, now half buried 
within the later brick gateway. 

The road just beyond the gate is connected with the 
story of the favourite saint of the Roman people. 

"When Sta. FranceiCa Romana had no resource but to beg for the 
sick under her care, she went to the basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori Mura, 
where was the station of the day, and seated herself amongst the 
crowd of beggars, who, according to custom, were there assembled. 
From the rising of the sun to the ringing of the vesper-bell, she sate 
there, side by side with the lame, the deformed, and the blind. She 
held out her liand as they did, gladly enduring, not the semblance, but 
the reality, of that deep humiliation. When she had received enough 
wherewith to feed the poor at home, she rose, and entering the old 
basilica, adored the Blessed Sacrament, and then walked back the long 
and weary vv^ay, blessing God all the while." — Lady G. Fullerton. 

A quarter of a mile beyond the gate we come in sight of 
the church and monastery, but the effect is much spoilt by 
the hideous modern cemetery, formed since the following 
description was written : — 

**S. Lorenzo is as perfect a picture of a basilica externally, as S. 
Clemente is internally. Viewing it from a little distance, the whole 
pile — in its grey reverend dignity — the row of stones indicating the 
atrium, with an ancient cross in the centre — the portico overshadowing 
faded frescoes — the shelving roof, the body-wall bulging out and lapping 
over, like an Egyptian temple — tlie detached Lombard steeple— with 
the magic of sun and shadow, and the background of the Campagna, 
bounded by the blue mountains of Tivoli — together with the stillness, 
the repose, interrupted only by the chirp of the grasshopper, and the 
distant intermitted song of the Contadino — it forms altogether such a 
scene as painters love to sketch, and poets to re-people with the shadows 
■af past ages ; and I open a wider heaven for either fraternity to fly 



S. LORENZO FUORI MURA, 



427 



their fancies in, when I add that it was there the ill-fated Peter de 
Courtenay was crowned Emperor of the East." — Lord Lindsay, Christian 
Art. 

"To St. Laurence was given a crown of glory in heaven, and upon 
earth eternal and universal praise and fame ; for there is scarcely a city 
or town in all Christendom which does not contain a church or altar 
dedicated to his honour. The first of these was built by Constantine 
outside the gates of Rome, on the spot wheie he was buried ; and 
another was built on the summit of the hill, where he was martyred ; 
besides these, there are at Rome four others ; and in Spain the Escurial, 
and at Genoa the Cathedral." — Mrs. Jameson. 

We have already followed St. Laurence to the various 
spots in Rome connected with his story, — to the green space 
at the Navicella, where he distributed his alms before the 
house of St. Cyriaca (in whose catacomb he was first buried) ; 
to the basilica in the Palace of the Caesars, where he was 
tried and condemned ; to S. I^orenzo in Fonte, where he 
was imprisoned ; to S. Lorenzo Pane e Perna, where he 
died ; to S. Lorenzo in Lucina, where his supposed gridiron 
is preserved ; and now we come to his grave, where a 
grand basilica has arisen around the little oratory, erected 
by Constantine, which marked his first burial-place in the 
Catacombs. 

The first basiHca erected here was built in the end of the 
sixth century, by Pope Pelagius 11. , but this was repeatedly 
enlarged and beautified by succeeding popes, and at length 
was so much altered in 12 16, by Honorius IIL, that the old 
basilica became merely the choir or tribune of a larger and 
more important church. So many other changes have 
since taken place, that Bunsen remarks upon S. Lorenzo as 
more difficult of explanation than any other of the Roman 
churches. 

In front of the basilica stands a bronze statue of St. 
Laurence, upon a tall granite pillar. 

The portico is supported by six Ionic columns, four of 
them spiral. Above these is a mosaic frieze of the thirteenth 
century. In the centre is the Spotless Lamb, having, on the 
right, St. Laurence, Honorius III., and another figure; and 
on the left three heads, two of whom are supposed to be 
the virgin martyr Sta. Cyriaca, and her mother Tryphoena, 
buried in the adjoining cemetery. Above this is a very 
richly decorated marble frieze, boldly relieved with lions* 
heads. The gable of the church is faced with modern 
mosaics of saints. Within the portico are four splendid 

2 F 



428 WALKS IX ROME. 

sarcophagi ; that on the left of the entrance is adorned with 
rehefs representing a vintage, with cupids as the vine- 
gatherers, and contains the remains of Pope Damasus II., 
who died in 1049, ^^^er a reign of only twenty-three days. 
At the sides of the door are two marble lions. The w^alls 
of the portico are covered with a very curious series of 
frescoes, lately repainted. They represent four consecutive 
stories. 

On the right : — 

A holy hermit, living a life of solitude and prayer, heard a rush- 
:ng noise, and, looking out of his window, saw a troop of demons, 
who told him that the Emperor Heniy II. had just expired, and that 
they were hurrying to lay claim to his soul. The hermit trembled, 
and besought them to let him know as they returned how they 
had succeeded. Some days after, they came back and narrated that 
\vhen the Archangel was weighing the good and evil deeds of the 
emperor in his balance, the weight was falling in their favour — when 
suddenly the roasted St. Laurence appeared, bearing a golden chalice, 
which the emperor, shortly before his death, had bestowed upon the 
Church, and cast it into the scale of good deeds, and so turned the balance 
the other way, but that in revenge they had broken off one of the golden 
handles of the chalice. And when the hermit heard these things he re- 
joiced greatly ; and the soul of the emperor was saved and he became a 
canonized saint, — and the devils departed blaspheming. 

The order of the frescoes representing this legend is : — 

I, 2. Scenes in the life of Henry IT. 

3. The Emperor offers the golden chalice. 

4. A banquet scene. 

5. The hermit discourses with the devils. 

6. The death of Henry II.— 1024. 

7. Dispute for the soul of the Emperor. 

8. It is saved by St. Laurence. 

The second series represents the whole story of the acts, 
trial, martyrdom, and burial of St. Laurence ; one or tw^o 
frescoes in this were entirely effaced, and have been added 
by the restorer. Of the old series were : — 

1. The investiture of St. Laurence as deacon. 

2. St. Laurence washes the feet of poor Christians. 

3. He heals Sta. Cyriaca. 

4. He distributes alms on the Ccelian. 

5. He meets St. Sixtus led to death, and receives his blessing. 

6. He is led before the prefect. 

7. He restores sight to Lucillus. 

8. He is scourged. 

9. He baptizes St. Hippolytus. 

II. He refuses to give up the treasures of the Church. 
13, 14, 15. His burial by St. Hippolytus. 



S. LORENZO FUORI MURA. 429 

The third series represents the story of St. Stephen, fol- 
lowed by that of the translation of his relics to this basilica. 

The relics of St. Stephen were preserved at Constantinople, whither 
they had been transported from Jerusalem by the Empress Eudoxia, 
wife of Theodosius II. Hearing that her daughter Eudoxia, wife of 
Valentinian II., Emperor of the West, was afflicted with a devil, she 
begged her to come to Constantinople that her demon might be driven 
out by the touch of the relics. The younger Eudoxia wished to comply, 
— but the devil refused to leave her, unless St. Stephen was brought 
to Rome. An agreement was therefore made that the relics of St. 
Stephen should be exchanged for those of St. Laurence. St. Stephen 
arrived, and the empress was immediately relieved of her devil, but 
when the persons who had brought the relics of St. Stephen from 
Constantinople were about to take those of St. Laurence back with 
them, they all fell down dead ! Pope Pelagius pra)'ed for their restora- 
tion to life, which was granted for a short time, to prove the efficacy of 
prayer, but they all died again ten days after ! Thus the Romans 
knew that it would be ci'iminal to fulfil their promise, and part with the 
relics of St. Laurence, and the bodies of the two martyi-s were laid in 
the same sarcophagus. 

The frescoes in the left wall represent a separate story : — 

A holy sacristan arose before the dawn to enjoy solitary prayers before 
the altars of this chm-ch. Once when he was thus employed, he found 
that he was not alone, and beheld three persons, a priest, a dea- 
con, and sub-deacon, officiating at the altar, and the church around 
him filled with worshippers, whose faces bore no mortal impress. 
Tremblingly he drew near to him whom he dreaded the least, and 
inquired of the deacon who this company might be. ' The priest whom 
thou seest is the blessed apostle Peter,' answered the spirit, 'and I 
am Laurence who suffered cruel torments for the love of my master 
Christ, upon a Wednesday, which was the day of his betrayal ; and in 
remembrance of my martyrdom we are come to-day to celebrate here 
the mysteries of the Church ; and the sub-deacon who is with us is the 
first martyr, St. Stephen, — and the worshippers are the apostles, the 
martyrs, and virgins who have passed with me into Paradise, and have 
come back hither to do me honour ; and of this solemn service thou art 
chosen as the witness. When it is day, therefore, go to the pope and 
tell what thou hast seen, and bid him, in my name, to come hither 
and to celebrate a solemn mass with all his clergy, and to grant 
indulgences to the faithful.' But the sacristan trembled and said, * If I 
go to the pope he will not believe me : give me some visible sign, then, 
which will show what I have seen.' And St. Laurence ungirt his robe, 
and giving his girdle to the sacristan, bade him show it in proof of 
what he told. In the morning the old man related what he had . seen 
to the abbot of the monastery, who bore the girdle to the then pope, 
Alexander II. The pope accompanied him back to the basilica, — 
and on their way they were met by a funeral procession, when, to test 
the powers of the girdle, the pope laid it on the bier, and at once the 
dead arose aud walked. Then all men knew that the sacristan had told 
what was true, and the pope celebrated mass as he had been bidden. 



430 WALKS IN ROME. 

and promised an indulgence of forty years to all who should visit on a 
Wednesday any church dedicated to St. Laurence. 

This story is told in eight pictures : — 

1. The sacristan sees the holy ones. 

2. The Phantom Mass. 

3. The sacristan tells the abbot. 

4. The abbot tells the pope. 

5. The pope consults his cardinals. 

6. The dead is raised by the girdle. 

7. Mass is celebrated at St. Lorenzo, and souls are freed from 
purgatory by the intercession of the saint. 

8. Prayer is made at the shrine of St. Laurence. 

The nave — which is the basiHca of Honorius III. — is 
divided from its side aisles by twenty-two Ionic columns of 
granite and cipollino. The sixth column on the right has a" 
lizard and a frog amongst the decorations of its capital, which 
led Winckelmann to the supposition that these columns 
were brought hither from the Portico of Octavia, because 
Pliny describes that the architects of the Portico of Me- 
tellus, which formerly occupied that site, were two wSpartans, 
named Sauros and Batrachus, who implored permission to 
carve their names upon their work ; and that when leave 
was refused, they introduced them under this form, — 
Batrachus signifying a frog, and Sauros a lizard. 

Above the architrave are frescoes by Fracassini, of the 
lives and martyrdoms of SS. Stephen and Laurence. Higher 
up are saints connected with the history of the basilica. 
The roof is painted in patterns. The splendid opus- 
alexandrinum pavement is of the tenth century. On the 
left of the entrance is a baptismal font, above which are_ 
more frescoes relating to the story of St. Laurence. On the 
right, beneath a mediaeval canopy, is a very fine sarcophagus, 
sculptured with a wedding scene, — adapted as the tomb of 
Cardinal Fieschi, nephew of Innocent IV., who died in 
1256. Inside the canopy, is a fresco of Christ throned, to 
whom St. Laurence presents the cardinal, and St. Stephen 
Innocent IV. Behind stand St. Eustace and St. Hippolytus. 
The west end of the church is closed by the inscription, 
" Hi sunt qui venerunt de tribulatione magna, et laverunt 
stolas suas in sanguine agni." 

The splendid ambones in the nave, inlaid with serpentine 
and porphyry, are of the twelfth century. That on the right, 



i-. LORENZO FUORI MURA. 431 

with a candelabrum for the Easter candle, was for the 
gospel ; that on the left for the epistle. 

At the end of the left aisle, a passage leads down to a 
subterranean chapel, used for prayer for the souls in pur- 
gatory. Here is the entrance to the Catacombs of Sta. Ciriaca, 
which are said to extend as far as Sant' Agnese, but which 
have been much and wantonly injured in the works for the 
new cemetery. Here the body of St. Laurence is related to 
have been found. Over the entrance is inscribed : — 

" Hsec est tumba ilia toto orbe terrarum celeberrima ex cimeterio S. 
Cyriacae Matronse ubi sacrum si quis fecerit pro defunctis eorum 
animas e purgatorii pcenis divi Laurentii meritis evocabit." * 

Passing the triumphal arch, we enter the early basilica of 
Pope Pelagius II. (572 — 590), which is on a lower level 
than that of the nave. Here are twelve splendid columns of 
pavonazzetto, of which the two first bear trophies carved 
above the acanthus leaves of their capitals. These support 
an entablature formed from various antique fragments, put 
together without uniformity, — and a triforium, divided by 
twelve small columns. 

On the inside, which was formerly the outside, of the 
triumphal arch, is a restored mosaic of the time of Pelagius, 
representing the Saviour seated upon the world, having on 
the right St. Peter, St. Laurence, and St. Pelagius, and on 
the left St. Paul and St. Stephen, and with them, in a war- 
rior's dress, St. Hippolytus, the soldier who was appointed to 
guard St. Laurence in prison, and who, being converted by 
him, was dragged to death by wild horses, after seeing nine- 
teen of his family suffer before his eyes. He is the patron 
saint of horses. Here also are the mystic cities, Bethlehem 
and Jerusalem. 

A long poetical inscription is known to have once existed 
here ; only two lines remain round the arch : — 

" Martyrium flaminis olim Levita subisti 
Jure tuis templis lux veneranda redit." 

The high altar, with a baldacchino, supported by four 
porphyry columns, covers the remains of SS. Laurence and 
Stephen, enclosed in a silver shrine by Pelagius IL, a pope 
so munificent that he had given up his own house as a 
hospital for aged poor. St. Justin is also buried here. 

* The existence of this inscription makes the destruction of this catacomb under 
Fius IX. the more extraordinary. 



432 IVALA'S ly ROME. 

"No one l<new what had become of the body of ^t. Stephen for 400 
years, when Lucian, a priest of Carsamagala, in Palestine, was visited 
in a dream by Gamaliel, the doctor of the law at whose feet Paul was 
brought up in all the learning of the Jews ; and Gamaliel revealed to 
him that after the death of Stephen he had carried away the body 
of the saint, and had buried it in his own sepulchre, and had also 
deposited near it the body of Nicodemus and other saints ; and this 
dream having been repeated three times, Lucian went with others 
deputed by the bishop, and dug with mattocks and spades in the spot 
which had been indicated, — a sepulchre in a garden, — and found what 
they supposed to be the remains of St. Stephen, their peculiar sanctity 
being proved by many miracles. These relics were first deposited in 
Jerusalem, in the church of Sion, and afterwards by the younger 
Theodosius carried to Constantinople, whence they were taken to 
Rome, and placed by Pope Pelagius in the same tomb with St. 
Laurence. It is related that when they opened the sarcophagus, 
and lowered into it the body of St. Stephen, St. Laurence moved on 
one side, giving the place of honour on the right hand to St. Stephen : 
hence the common people of Rome have conferred on St. Laurence the 
title of * II cortese Spagnuolo ' — the courteous Spaniard." — Ja?neson' s 
Sacred and Legendary Art, 

Behind the altar is a mosaic screen, with panels of 
porphyry and serpentine, and an ancient episcopal throne. 

The lower church was filled up with soil till 1864, when 
restorations were ordered here. These were entrusted to 
Count Vespignani, and have been better carried out than 
most church alterations in Rome ; but an interesting portico, 
with mosaics by one of the famous Cosmati family, has 
been destroyed to make room for some miserable arrange- 
ments connected with the modern cemetery. 

It was in this basilica that Peter Courtenay, Count of 
Auxerre, with Yolande his wife, received the imperial 
cro^vn of Constantinople from Honorius III. in 12 17. 

Adjoining the church is the very picturesque Cloister of 
the Monastery, built in 1190, for Cistercian monks, but 
assigned as a residence for any Patriarchs of Jerusalem 
who might visit Rome. Here are preserved many ancient 
inscriptions, and other fragments from the neighbouring 
catacombs. 

The basilica is now almost engulfed in the Cemetery of 
S. Lorenzo, the great modern burial-ground of Rome. It 
was opened in 1837, but has been much enlarged in the last 
ten years. Hither wend the numerous funerals which are 
seen passing through the streets after Ave-Maria, with a 
procession of monks bearing candles. A frightful gate, with 
a laudatory inscription to Pius IX., and a hideous modern 



ROMAN FUNERALS, 433 

chapel, have been erected. There are very few fine mo- 
numents. The best are those in imitation of the cinque- 
cento tombs of which there are so many in the Roman 
churches. That by Podesti, the painter, to his wife, in the 
right corridor of the cloister, is touching. The higher 
ground to the left, behind the church, is occupied by the 
tombs of the rich. Those of the poor are indiscriminately 
scattered over a wide plain. A range of cliffs on the left 
were perforated by the catacombs of St. Cyriaca, which, mth 
the bad taste so constantly displayed in Rome, have been 
wantonly and shamefully broken up. Those who do not 
wish to descend into a catacomb, may here see (from with- 
out) all their arrangements — in the passages lined with sepul- 
chres, and even some small chapels, lined with rude frescoes, 
laid open to the air, where the cliff has been cut away. 

A Roman funeral is a most sad sight, and strikes one with 
an unutterable sense of desolation, 

" After a death the body is entirely abandoned to the priests, who 
take possession of it, watch over it, and prepare it for burial ; while the 
family, if they can find refuge anywhere else, abandon the house and 

remain away a week The body is not ordinarily allowed 

to remain in the house more than twelve hours, except on condition 
that it is sealed up in lead or zinc. At nightfall a sad procession of 
becchini and f7-aii may be seen coming down the street, and stopping 
before the house of the dead. The becchini are taken from the lowest 
classes of the people, and hii^ed to carry the corpse on the bier and to 
accompany it to the church and cemeteiy. They are dressed in shabby 
black cappc, covering their head and face as well as their body, and 
having two large holes cut in front of the eyes to enable them to see. 
These cappe are girdled round the waist, and the dirty trousers and 
worn-out shoes are miserably manifest under the skirts of their dress — 
showing plainly that their duty is occasional. All they're/// and becchini, 
except the four who carry the bier, are furnished with wax candles, for 
no one is buried in Rome without a candle. You may know the rank 
of the person to be buried by the lateness of the hour and the number 
of \\itfrati. If it be the funeral of a person of wealth or a noble, it 
takes place at a late hour, the procession oi frati is long, and the bier 
elegant. If it be a state-funeral, as of a prince, carriages accompany it 
in mourning, the coachman and lackeys are bedizened in their richest 
liveries, and the state hammer-cloths are spread on the boxes, with the 
family arms embossed on them in gold. But if it be a pauper's funeral, 
there are only becchini enough to carry the bier to the grave, and two 
/^■ati, each with a little candle ; and the sunshine is yet on the streets 
when they come to take away the corpse. 

" You will see this procession stop before the house where the corpse 
is lying. Some of the becchini go up-stairs, and some keep guard below. 
Scores of shabby men and boys are gathered round the frati ; some 
attracted simply by curiosity, and some for the purpose of catching the 



434 WALKS IN ROME. 

wax, which gutters down from the candles as they are blown by the 
wind. The latter may be known by the great horns of paper which 
they carry in their hands. While this crowd waits for the corpse, the 
/rati light their candles, and talk, laugh, and take snuff together. 
Finally comes the body, borne down by four of the becchitti. It is in 
a common rough deal coffin, more like an ill-made packing-case than 
anything else. No care or expense has been laid out upon it to make it 
elegant, for it is only to be seen for a moment. Then it is slid upon the 
bier, and over it is drawn the black velvet pall with golden trimmings, 
on which a cross, death's head, and bones are embroidered. Four of 
the becchi7ti hoist it on their shoulders, the frati break forth into their 
hoarse chaunt, and the procession sets out for the church. Little and 
big boys and shabby men follow along, holding up their paper horns 
against the sloping candles to catch the dripping wax. Every one takes 
off his hat, or makes the sign of the cross, or mutters a prayer, as the 
body passes ; and with a dull, sad, monotonous chant, the candles 
gleaming and flaring, and casting around them a yellow flickering glow, 
the funeral winds along through the narrow streets, and under the 
sombre palaces and buildings, where the shadows of night are deepening 
every moment. The spectacle seen from a distance, and especially 
when looked down upon from a window, is very effective ; but it loses 
much of its solemnity as you approach it ; for the frati are so vulgar, 
dirty, and stupid, and seem so utterly indifferent and heartless, as they 
mechanically croak out their psalms, that all other emotions yield to a 
feeling of disgust." — Story's Roba di Roma. 

" Ces rapprochements soudains del'antiquite et des temps modemes, 
provoques par la vue d'un monument dont la destinee se lie a I'une et 
aux autres, sont tres-frequents a Rome. L'histoire poetique d'Enee 
aurait pu m'en fournir plusieurs. Ainsi dans I'Eneide, aux funerailles 
de Pallas, une longue procession s'avance, portant des flambeaux 
funebres, suivant I'usage antique, dit Virgile. En effet, on se souvient 
que Tusage des cierges remontait a I'abolition des sacrifices humains, 
accompli dans les temps heroiques par le dieu pelasgique Hercule. La 
description que fait Virgile des funerailles de Pallas pourrait convenir a 
un de ces enterrements romains ou Ton voit de longues files de capucms 
marchant processionnellement en portant des cierges. 

. . . * Lucet via longo 
Ordine flammarum.' " 

.^n. xi. 143. 
— Amph'e, i. 217. 

On the other side of the road from S. Lorenzo is the 
Catacomb of St. Hippolytus, interesting as described by the 
Christian poet Pnidentius, who wrote at the end of the 
fourth century. 

"Not far from the city walls, among the well-trimmed orchards, 
there lies a crypt buried in darksome pits. Into its secret recesses a 
steep path in the winding stairs directs one, even though the turnings' 
shut out the light. The light of day, indeed, comes in through the 
doorway, as far as the surface of the opening, and illuminates the 
threshold of the portico ; and when, as you advance further, the dark- 



CATACOMB OF S. HIPPOLYTUS. 435 

Tiess as of night seems to get more and more obscure throughout the 
mazes of the cavern, there occur at intervals apertures cut in the roof 
which convey the bright rays of the sun upon the cave. Ahhough the 
recesses, twisting at random this way and that, form narrow chambers 
with darksome galleries, yet a considerable quantity of light finds its 
way through the pierced vaulting down into the hollow bowels of the 
mountain. And thus throughout the subterranean crypt it is possible 
to perceive the brightness and enjoy the light of the absent sun. To 
such secret places is the body of Hippolytus conveyed, near to the spot 
where now stands the altar dedicated to God. That same altar-slab 
(mensa) gives the sacrament, and is the faithful guardian of its martyrs' 
bones, which it keeps laid up there in expectation of the Eternal Judge, 
while it feeds the dwellers by the Tiber with holy food. Wondrous is 
the sanctity of the place ! The altar is at hand for those who pray, and, 
it assists the hopes of men by mercifully granting what they need. 
Here have I, when sick with ills both of soul and body, oftentimes 
prostrated myself in prayer and found relief. .... Early in the 
morning men come to salute (Hippolytus): all the youth of the place 
worship here : they come and go until the setting of the sun. Love 
of religion collects together into one dense crowd both Latins and 
foreigners; they imprint their kisses on the shining silver; they pour 
out their sweet balsams; they bedew their faces with tears." — See 
Roma Sotterranea, p. 98. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
IN THE CAMPUS MARTIUS. 

S. Antonio dei Portoguesi — Torre della Scimia — S. Agostino — S. 
Apollinare — Palazzo Altemps — Sta. Maria dell' Anima — Sta. 
Maria della Pace — Palazzo del Govemo Vecchio — Monte Giordano 
and Palazzo Gabrielli — Sta. Maria Nuova — Sta. Maria di Mon- 
serrato- S. Girolamo della Carita — Sta. Brigitta — S. Tommaso 
degl' Tnglese — Palazzo Famese — Sta. Maria della Morte — Palazzo 
Falconieri — Campo di Fiore — Palazzo Cancelleria — SS. Lorenzo e 
Damaso — Palazzo Linote — Palazzo Spada — Trinita dei Pellegrini 
— Sta. Maria in Monticelli — Palazzo Santa Croce — S. Carlo a Cati- 
nari — Theatre of Pompey — S. Andrea della Valle — Palazzo Vidoni 
— Palazzo Massimo alleColonne — S. Pantaleone — Palazzo Braschi — 
Statue of Pasquin — Sant' Agnese — Piazza Navona — Palazzo Pamfili 
— S. Giacomo degli Spagnuoli — Palazzo Madama — S. Luigi dei 
Francesi — The Sapienza — S. Eustachio — Pantheon — Sta. Maria 
sopra Minerva — II Pie die Marmo. 

nPHE Campus Martins, now an intricate labyrinth of 

^ streets, occupying the wide space between the Corso 

and the Tiber, was not included within the walls of 



436 WALKS IN ROME. 

ancient Rome, but even to late imperial times, continued to 
be covered with gardens and pleasure-grounds, interspersed 
with open spaces, which were used for the public exercises 
and amusements of the Roman youth. 

**Tunc ego me memini ludos in gramine Campi 
Aspicere, et didici, lubrice Tibri, tuos. " 

Ovid, Fast. vL 237. 

"Tot jam abiere dies, cum me, nee cura theatri, 
Nee tetigit Campi, nee mea musa juvat." 

Propert. ii. El. 13. 

The vicinity of the Tiber afforded opportunities for prac- 
tice in swimming. 

" Quamvis non alius flectere equum sciens 
^que conspicitur gramine Martio." 

Hor. iii. Od. 7. 

"Altera gramineo spectabis Equiria campo, 
Quern Tiberis curvis in latus urget aquis." 

Ovid^ Fast. iii. 519. 

' ' Once, upon a raw and gusty day, 
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, 
Caesar said to me, ' Dar'st thou, Cassius, now 
Leap in with me into this angry flood, 
And swim to yonder point ? ' Upon the word, 
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in. 
And bade him follow, — so, indeed, he did : 
The torrent roared ; and we did buffet it 
With lusty sinews ; throwing it aside. 
And stemming it with hearts of controversy." 

Shakspeare, yidius CtEsar. 

It was only near the foot of the Capitol that any build- 
ings were erected under the republic, and these only public 
offices ; under the empire a few magnificent edifices were 
scattered here and there over the plain. In the time of 
Cicero, the Campus was quite uninhabited ; it is supposed 
that the population were first attracted here when the 
aqueducts were cut during the Lombard invasion, which 
drove the inhabitants from the hills, and obliged them to 
seek a site where they could avail themselves of the Tiber. 

The hills, which were crowded by a dense population in 
ancient Rome, are now for the most part deserted ; the 
plain, which was deserted in ancient Rome, is now thickly 
covered with inhabitants. 

^1le plain was bounded on two sides by the Quirinal and 
Capitolinc hills, which were both in the hands of the 



BUILDIXGS OF THE CAMPUS MARTIUS, 437 

Sabines, but it had no connection with the Latin hill of 
the Palatine. Thus it was dedicated to the Sabine god, 
Mamers or Mars, either before the time of Servius Tullius, 
as is implied by Dionysius, or after the time of the Tarquins, 
as stated by Livy. 

Tarquinius Superbus had appropriated the Campus 
Martius to his own use, and planted it with corn. After he 
was expelled, and his crops cut down and thrown into the 
Tiber, the land was restored to the people. Here the 
tribunes used to hold the assemblies of the plebs in the 
Prata Flaminia at the foot of the Capitol, before any build- 
ings were erected as their meeting-place. 

The earliest building in the Campus Martius of which 
there is any record, is the Temple of Apollo, built by the 
consul C. Julius, in B.C. 430. Under the censor C. Flami- 
nius, in B.C. 220, a group of important edifices arose on a 
site which is ascertained to be nearly that occupied by the 
Palazzo Caetani, Palazzo Mattel, and Sta. Caterina dei 
Funari. The most important was the Circus Flaminius, 
where the plebeian games were celebrated under the care of 
the plebeian sediles, and which in later times was flooded 
by Augustus, when thirty-six crocodiles were killed there 
for the amusement of the people. '"^ 

Close to this Circus was the Villa Publica, erected B.C. 
438, for taking the census, levying troops, and such other 
public business as could not be transacted within the city. 

Here, also, foreign ambassadors were received before their 
entrance into the city, as afterwards at the Villa Papa 
Giulio, and here victorious generals awaited the decree 
which allowed them a triumph. t It was in the Villa 
Publica that Sylla cruelly massacred three thousand parti- 
sans of Marius, after he had promised them their lives. 

" Tunc flos Hesperise, Latii jam sola juventus, 
Concidit, et miserse maculavit ovilia Romse." 

Lucan, ii. 196. 

The cries of these dying men were heard by the senate 
who were assembled at the time in the Temple of Bellona 
(restored by Appius Claudius Caecus in the Samnite War), 
which stood hard by, and in front of which at the extremity 
of the Circus Flaminius, where the Piazza Paganica now is, 

* Dyer's Rome, 70. t Ampere, Hist. ii. lo. 



438 WALKS IX ROME. 

stood the Columna Bellica, where the FeriaHs, when war 
was declared, flung a lance into a piece of ground, supposed 
to represent the enemy's country, when it was not possible 
to do it at the hostile frontier itself. Julius Caesar flung the 
spear here when war was declared against Cleopatra.^ 

" Prospicit a templo summum brevis area Circum. 
, Est ibi non parvse parva columna notse. 
Hinc solet hasta manu, belli praenuncia, mitti ; 
In regem et gentes, cum placet arma capi." 

Ovid, Fast. vi. 205. 

Almost adjoining the Villa Pubhca was the Septa, 
where the Comitia Centuriata of the plebs assembled 
for the election of their tribunes. The other name of this 
place of assembly, Ovilia, or the sheepfolds, bears wit- 
ness to its primitive construction, when it was surrounded 
by a wooden barrier. In later times the Oviha was more 
richly adorned ; Pliny describes it as containing two groups 
of sculpture — Pan and the young Olympus, and Chiron and 
the young Achilles — for which the keepers were responsible 
with their lives ; t and under the empire it was enclosed in 
magnificent buildings. 

In B.C. 189 the Te7nple of Hej'cules Musagetes was built by 
the censor Fulvius Nobilior. It occupied a site on the 
north-west of the portico of Octavia. J Sylla restored it : — 

"Altera pars Circi custode sub Hercule tuta est; 
Quod Deus Euboico carmine munus habet. 
Muneris est tempus, qui Nonas Lucifer ante est : 
Si titulos quseris; Sulla probavii opus." 

Ovid, Fast. vi. 209. 

This temple was rebuilt by L. Marcius Philippus, step- 
father of Augustus, and surrounded by a portico called after 
him Porticus Philippi.§ 

" Vites censeo porticum Philippi, 
Si te viderit Hercules, peristi." 

Martial, v. Ep. 50. || 

The Portico of Odavia itself was originally built by the 
praetor, Cn. Octavius, in B.C. 167, and rebuilt by Augustus, 
who re-dedicated it in memory of his sister. Close adjoin- 

* Ampfire, Emp. i. 184. t Pliiiy* H. N. xxxv. 37, 2 ; and 49, 4. 

J Dyer, iii. § Dyjr, 211. 

II It was close to this temple of Hercules that the bodies of Sta. Symphorosa and 
her seven sons, martyred under Hadrian (" the seven Biothanati ") were buried by 
order of the emperor. Sta. Symphorosa herself had been hung up here by her hair, 
before being drowned ir the Tiber. 



BUILDINGS OF THE CAMPUS MARTIUS. 439 

ing was the Portiais Metelli, built B.C. 146, by Csecilius 
Metellus.* It contained two Te??ipks of yiuw and yupiter.\ 
Another Temple of yiino stood between this and the theatre 
of Pompey, having been erected by M. ^miHus Lepidus in 
B.C. 170, together with a Temple of Diana. % Near the same 
spot was a Temple of Forhma Eqiiesfris, erected in conse- 
quence of a vow of Q. Fulvius Flaccus when fighting 
against the Celtiberians in B.C. 176; a Temple of Isis and 
Serapis ; and a Temple of Mars, erected by D. Junius 
Brutus, for his victories over the GalHcians in B.C. 136 ; § at 
this last-named temple the people, assembled in their cen- 
turies, voted the war against Philip of Macedon. In the 
same neighbourhood was the Theatre of Balbiis, a general 
under JuUus Caesar, occupying the site of the Y\2JLZd. della 
Scuola. 

The munificence of Pompey extended the public build- 
ings much further into the Campus. He built, after his 
triumph, a Temple of Minerva on the site now occupied by 
the Church of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, on which the 
beautiful statue called " the Giustiniani Minerva " was found, 
and the Theatre of Tojnpey, surrounded by pillared porticoes 
and walks shaded with plane-trees. 

" Scilicet umbrosis sordet Pompeia columnis 
Porticus aulaeis nobilis Attalicis : 
F.t creber pariter platanis surgentibus ordo, 
Fiumina sopito quseque Marone cadunt. " 

Propertiiis, ii. EL 32. 
** Tu modo Pompeia lentus spatiare sub umbra, 
Cum Sol Herculei terga leonis adit." 

Ovid, de Art. Ant. i. 67. 
*' Inde petit centum pendentia tecta columnis, 
Illinc Pompeii dona, nemusque duplex." 

Martial, ii. Ep. 14. 

Under the empire important buildings began to rise up 
further from the city. The A^nphitheatre of Statilius Taurus, 
whose ruins are supposed to be the foundation of the 
Monte-Citorio, was built by a general under Augustus ; the 
magnificent Pajitheon, the Baths of Agrippa, and the T>i- 
ribitorium — w^here the soldiers received their pay — whose 
huge and unsupported roof was one of the Avonders of the 
city, II were due to his son-in-law. Agrippa also brought 

* Dyer, 113. 115. f Ampare, Hist. Rom. iii. 108. 

X Dyer, 115. § Dyer, 115, 116. |1 Pliny, H. N. xxxvi. 15. ^4. 



440 WALK'S IX ROAfE. 

the Aqua Virgo into the city to supply his baths, coivey- 
ing it on pillars across the Flaminian Way, the future 
Corso. 

* Qua vicina pluit Vipsanis porta columnis, 
Et madet assiduo lubricus imbre lapis, 
In jugulum pueri, qui roscida templa siibibat, 
Decidit hiberno piaegravis unda gelu." 

MaHial, iv. Ep. 1 8. 

Near this aqueduct was a temple of Juturna \ 

" Te quoque lux eadem, Tumi soror, sede recepit ; 
Hie ubi Virginea campus obitur aqua." 

Ovidy Fast, i 463. 
and another of Isis. 

"A Meroe portabit aquas, ut spargat in a&de 
Isidis, antique quae proxima surgit ovili." 

yuvejial. Sat. vi. 5281. 

These were followed by the erection of the Temple of 
Neptune — by some ascribed to Agrippa, who is said to have 
built it in honour of his naval victories ; by others to the 
time of the Antonines — by the great Impe?'ial Mausoleum, 
then far out in the country ; and by the Baths of Nero^ on 
the site now occupied by S. Luigi and the neighbouring 
buildings. 

"... Quid Nerone pejus ? 
Quid Ihermis melius Neronianis : " 

Martial, vii. Ep. 33. 

" . . . Fas sit componere magnis 
Parva, Neronea nee qui modo totus in imda 
Hie itei-um sudare negat." 

StatiiiSy Sih. i. 5. 

Besides these were an Arch of Tiberius, erected by 
Claudius, a Temple of Hadrian and Basilica of Matidia. 
built by Antoninus Pius, in honour of his ^predecessors, 
the Temple and Arch of Marais Aurelius, near the site of 
the present Palazzo Chigi, and an A7xh of Gratian, Valen- 
tinian 11., and llieodosius. 

Of all these various buildings nothing remains except the 
Pantheon, a single arch of the Baths of Agripjia, some dis- 
figured fragments of the Mausoleum, a range of columns 
belonging to the temple of Neptune, and a portion of the 
Portico of Octavia. The interest of the Campus Martius 
is almost entirely mediaeval or modern, and the objects 
woith visiting are scattered amid such a maze of dirty and 



TORRE BELLA SCLMIA. 441 

intricate streets, that they are seldom sought out except by 
those who make a long stay in Rome, and care for every- 
thing connected with its history and architecture. 



Following the line of streets which leads from the Piazza 
di Spagna to St. Peter's (Via Condotti, Via Fontanella 
Borghese), beyond the Borghese Palace, let us turn to the 
left by the Via della Scrofa,* at the entrance of which is 
the Palazzo Galifzin on the right, and the Palazzo Cardelli 
on the left. 

Passnig, on the right, St. Ivo of Brittany, the national 
church of the Bretons, the second turn on the right. Via S. 
Antonio dei Portoguesi, shows a church dedicated to St. 
Anthony of Padua, and the fine mediaeval tower called 
Torre della Scimia. 

In this tower once lived a man who had a favourite ape. 
One day this creature seized upon a baby, and rushing to 
the summit, was seen from beloAv, by the agonized parents, 
perched upon the battlements, and balancing their child to 
and fro over the abyss. They made a vow in their terror 
that if the baby were restored in safety, they would make 
provision that a lamp should burn nightly for ever before an 
image of the Virgin on the summit. The monkey, without 
relaxing its hold of the infant, slid down the wall, and 
bounding and grimacing, laid the child at its mother's feet. 
Thus a lamp always burns upon the battlements before an 
image of the Madonna. 

This building is better known, however, as " Hilda's 
Tower," a fictitious name which it has received from Haw- 
thorne's mysterious novel. 

*' Taking her way through some of the intricacies of the city, Miriam 
entered what might be called either a widening of a street or a small 
piazza. The neighbourhood comprised a baker's oven, emitting the 
usual fragrance of sour bread ; a shoe shop ; a linendraper's shop ; a 
pipe and cigar shop ; a lottery office ; a station for French soldiers, with 
a sentinel pacing in front ; and a fruit stand, at which a Roman matron 
was selling the dried kernels of chesnuts, wretched little figs, and some 
bouquets of yesterday. A church, of course, was near at hand, the 
facade of which ascended into lofty pinnacles, whereon were perched 
two or three winged figures of stone, either angelic or allegorical, blow- 
ing stone tnnnpets in close vicinity to the upper windows of an old 

* So called from a fountain adorned with the figure of a sow, which once existed 
nere. 



- 442 WALKS IN ROME. 

and shabby palace. This palace was distinguished by a feature not 
very common in the architecture of Roman edifices ; that is to say, a 
medioeval tower, square, massive, lofty, and battlemented and machico- 
lated at the summit. 

" At one of the angles of the battlements stood a shrine of the Virgin, 
such as we see everywhere at the street-corners of Rome, but seldom or 
never, except in this solitary instance, at a height above the ordinary 
level of men's views and aspirations. Connected with this old tower and 
its lofty shrine, there is a legend ; and for centuries a lamp has been 
burning before the Virgin's image at noon, at midnight, at all hours of 
the twenty-four, and must be kept burning for ever, as long as the tower 
shall stand ; or else the tower itself, the palace, and whatever estate be- 
longs to it, shall pass from its hereditary possessor, in accordance with 
an ancient vow, and become the property of the Church. 

'* As Miriam approached, she looked upward, and saw — not, indeed, 
the flame of the never-dying lamp, which was swallowed up in the broad 
sunlight that brightened the shrine — but a flock of white doves, shining, 
fluttering, and wheeling above the topmost height of the tower, their 
silver wings flashing in the pure transparency of the air. Several of 
them sat on the ledge of the upper window, pushing one another off by 
their eager struggle for this favourite station, and all tapping their beaks 
and flapping their wings tumultuouely against the panes ; some had 
alighted ia the street, far below, but flew hastily upward, at the sound 
of the window being thrust ajar, and opening in the middle, on rusty 
hinges, as Roman windows do." — Transformation. 

The next street, on the right, leads to the Church of S. 
Agostino., built originally by Bacio PintelH, in 1483, for 
Cardinal d'Estouteville, archbishop of Rouen and Legate 
in France (the vindicator of Joan of Arc), but altered in 
1740 by VanvitelH. The delicate work of the front, built 
of travertine robbed from the Coliseum, is much admired 
by those who do not seek for strength of light and shadow. 
This church — dedicated to her son — contains the remains 
of Sta. Monica, brought hither from Ostia, where she died. 
The chapel of St. Augustin, in the right transept, contains 
a gloomy picture by Guercino of St. Augustin between St. 
John Baptist and St. Paul the Hermit. The high altar, by 
Bernini, has an image of the Madonna brought from Sta. 
Sophia at Constantinople, and attributed to St. Luke. 
The second chapel in the left aisle has a group of the 
Virgin and Child with St. Anna, hy Andrea Sansovino, 15 12. 

On the third pilaster, to the left of the nave, is a fresco 
of Isaiah by Raphael, painted in 15 12, but retouched by 
Daniele de Volterra in the reign of Paul IV. The prophet 
holds a scroll with words from Isaiah xxvi. 2. Few will 
agree with the stricture of Kugler : — 



S. AGOSTJNO. .;43 

*' In a fresco, representing the prophet Isaiah and two angtls, who 
hold a tablet, the comparison is unfavourable to Raphael. An effort to 
rival the powerful style of Michael-Angelo is very visible in this picture ; 
an effort which, notwithstanding the excellence of the execution in 
parts, has produced only an exaggerated and affected figure." — Kugler, 
ii. 371. 

The church overflows with silver hearts and other votive 
offerings, which are all addressed to the Madonna and 
Child of Andrea Sansovino, close to the west entrance, 
which is really a fine piece of sculpture — for an object of 
Roman Catholic idolatry. 

" On the pedestal of the image is inscribed — ' N. S. Pio VII, con- 
cede in perpetuo 100 giorni d'indulgenza da lucrarsi una volta al 
giorno da tutte quelle che divotamente toccheranno il piede di questa S. 
Immagine recitando un Ave Maria per il bisogno di S . Chiesa. 7 Giug. 

MD.CCCXXII." 

Around this statue are, or were a short time ago, a whole 
array of assassins' daggers hung up, strange instances of 
trespass-offering. 

" The Church of S. Agostino is the Methodist meeting-house, so to 
speak, of Rome, where the extravagance of the enthusiasm of the lower 
orders is allowed the freest scope. Its Virgin and Child are covered, 
smothered, with jewels, votive offerings of those whose prayers the image 
had heard and answered. All round the image the walls are covered 
with votive offerings likewise ; some of a similar kind — ^jewels, watches, 
valuables of different descriptions. Some offerings again con'^ist of 
pictures, representing, generally in the rudest way, some sickness or 
accident, cured or averted by the appearance in the clouds of the 
Madonna, as seen in the image. Almost the whole side of the church 
is covered, from pavement to roof, with these curious productions." — 
Al/ord's Letters from Abroad. 

"It is not long since the report was spread, that one day when a 
poor woman called upon this image of the Madonna for help, it began 
to speak, and i-eplied, 'If I had only something, then I could help 
thee, but I myself am so poor ! ' 

" This story was circulated, and very soon throngs of credulous 
people hastened hither to kiss the foot of the Madonna, and to present 
her with ail kinds of gifts. The image of the Virgin, a beautiful figure 
in brown marble, now sits shining with ornaments of gold and precious 
stones. Candles and lamps burn around, and people pour in, rich and 
poor, great and small, to kiss, some of them two or three times — the 
Madonna's foot, a gilt foot, to which the forehead also is devotionally 
pressed. The marble foot is already worn away with kissing, the 
Madonna is now rich. . . Below the altar it is inscribed in golden 
letters that Pius VII. promised two hundred days' absolution to all such 
as should kiss the Madonna's foot, and pray with the whole heart Ave 
Maria ." — Frederika Bj-emer. 

Passing the arch, just beyond this, is the Church of S. 

2 G 



44-1 IVALKS IN ROME. 

Apollinarc, built originally by Adrian I. (772 — 795), but 
modernized under Benedict XIV. by Fuga. It (X)ntains a 
number of relics of saints brought from the East by Basi- 
lian monks. Over the altar, on the left, in the inner vesti- 
bule, is a Madonna by Fenigi?io. The church now belongs 
to the German college. 

S- Apollinare is said to have accompanied St. Peter from Antioch 
to Rome, and to have remained here as his companion and assistant 
(whence the church dedicated to him here). He was after\s'ards sent 
to preach the faith in Ravenna, where he L>ecame the first Christian 
bishop, and suffered martyrdom outside the Rimini gate, July 23, 
A.D. 79. 

Adjoining this church is the Semmario Romano, founded 
by Pius IV., on a system dra\vn up by his nephew, S. Carlo 
Borromeo. Eight hundred young boys are annually edu- 
cated here. In order to gain admittance, it is necessary to 
be of Roman birth, to be acquainted with grammar, and to 
wish to take orders. Pupils are held to their first intention 
of entering the priesthood, by being compelled to refund all 
the expenses of their education, if they renounce it. 

Nearly opposite the church is the Palazzo Altemps, built 
1580, by Martino Lunghi. Its courtyard, due, like all 
the best palace \vork in Rome, to Baldassare Peruzzi, 
is exceedingly graceful and picturesque. Ancient statues 
and flowering shrubs occupy the spaces between the 
arches of the ground-floor, and on the first-floor is a 
loggia, richly decorated with delicate arabesques in the 
style of Giovanni da Udine. Near this loggia is a 
chapel of exceedingly beautiful proportions, and delicately 
worked detail. It has several good frescoes, especially 
the Flight into Egypt, and Sta. Cecilia singing to the 
Virgin and the Child. At the west end is a small grace- 
fully proportioned music-gallery, in various coloured 
marbles ; in an inner chapel is a fine bronze crucifix. The 
palace, of which the most interesting parts are shown on 
request, is now the property of the Duke of Gallese, to 
whom it came by the marriage of Jules Hardouin, Duke of 
Gallese, with Donna Lucrezia d'Altemps. 

Following the Via S. Agostino by the mediaeval Torre 
Sangui?iea, whose name bears witness to the mediaeval 
frays of popes and anti-popes, we reach the German 
national church of Sta. Maria dcW A7iiina^ which derives its 



STA. MA Is! Li DELL AXIMA. 445 

name from a marble group of the Madonna invoked by two 
souls in purgatory, found among the foundations, and now 
inserted in the tympanum of the portal. It was originally 
built c. 1440, with funds bequeathed by " un certo Gio- 
vanni Pietro," but enlarged in 1514; the fagade is by 
Giuliano da Sangallo. The door-frames, of delicate work- 
manship, are by Antonio Giamberti. 

The front entrance is generally closed, but one can 
always gain admittance from behind, through the courtyard 
of the German hospital. 

The interior is peculiar, from its great height and width 
in comparison with its length. It is divided into three 
almost equal aisles. Over the high altar is a damaged 
picture of the Holy Family with saints, by Giulio Romano. 
On the right is the fine tomb of Pope Adrian VI., Adrian 
Florent (1522 — 23), designed by Baldassare Peruzzi, and 
carried out by Michelangelo Sanese and Niccolo Tribolo. 
This pope, the son of a ship-builder at Utrecht, was pro- 
fessor at the university of Lou vain, and tutor of Charles V. 
After the witty, brilliant age of Julius II. and Leo X., he 
ushered in a period of penitence and devotion. He drove 
from the papal court the throng of artists and philosophers 
who had hitherto .surrounded it, and he put a stop to the 
various great buildings which were in progress, saying, " I 
do not wish to adorn priests with churches, but churches 
with priests." Still he found the times so much too fri- 
volous for him, that he only survived a year. In his 
epitaph we read : — 

"Hadrianus hie situs est, qui nihil sibi infelieius in vita quam quod 
imperaret, duxit."* 

and— 

" Proh dolor ! quantum refert in quae tempora vel optimi. 
. . . . Cujusque virtus incidat ! " 

The tomb was erected at the expense of Cardinal WiHiam 
of Enkenfort; the only prelate to whom he had time to give 
a hat. 

" It is an irony, that the tomb of Adrian, who despised all the arts on 
principle, and looked upon Greek statues as idolatrous, had a more 
artistic monument than I.eo X. of the house of Medici. Baldassare Pe- 
ruzzi made the design, its sculptures were carried out. by Michelangelo 

* "Here rests Hadrian, who found his greatest misfortune in being obliged to 
command." 



44<3 ly.-i L KS IN R OME. 

Sanese and Tribolo, and they merit the highest acknowledgment. Here, 
as is so often the case, the architecture is, as it were, a frontispiece ; but 
the way in which the pope is represented, resembles, in conformity ^vith 
his character, the type of the middle ages. He is stretched upon a 
simple marble sarcophagus, and slumbers with his head supported by 
his hand. His countenance (Adrian was very handsome) is deeply 
marked and sorrowful. In the lunette above, following the ancient 
type, appears Mary with the Child between St. Peter and St. Paul. 
Below, in the niches, stand the figures of the four cardinal virtues : 
7>mperance holds a chain ; Courage a branch of a tree, while a lion 
stands by her side ; Justice has an ostrich by her side ; Wisdom carries 
a mirror and a serpent. These figures are executed with great cai'e. 
Lastly, under the sarcophagus is a large bas-relief representing the entry 
of the pope to Rome. He sits on horseback in the dre^ss of a cardinal ; 
behind him follow cardinals and monks ; the senator of Rome renders 
homage on his knees, while from the gate the eternal Rome comes forth 
to meet him. This Cypria, so well adorned by his predecessors, seems 
ill -pleased to do homage to this cross old man. With secret pleasure 
one sees a pagan idea carried out in the corner: the Tiber is represented 
as a river god with his horn of abundance ; and thus the devout pope 
could not defend himself against the heathen spirit of the time, which 
has at least attached itself to his tomb." — Gregorovius, Cfabmdler der 
Plipste. 

Opposite the pope, on the left of the choir, is the fine 
tomb of a Duke of Cleves, who died 1575, by Egidius of 
Riviere and Nicolaus of Arras. 

The body of the church has several good pictures. In 
the I St chapel of the right aisle is St. Bruno receiving the 
keys of the cathedral of Miessen in Saxony from a fisherman, 
who had found them in the inside of a fish, by Carlo Sara- 
cent ; in the 2nd chapel, the monument of Cardinal Slusius ; 
in the 3rd chapel, an indifferent copy of the Pieta of Michael 
Angelo, by Nanni di Bacio Bigio. In the ist chapel of the 
left aisle is the martyrdom of St. Lambert, C. Saraceni. 

The two pictures in this church are cited by Lanzi as the best works 
of this comparatively rare artist, sometimes called Carlo Veneziano, 
1585 — 1625. He sought to follow in the steps of Caravaggio ; many will 
think that he surpassed him, when they look upon the richness of colour 
and grand effect of light and shadow which is displayed here. 

In the 3rd chapel (del Christo Morto), frescoes from the 
life of Sta. Barbara, Mich. Coxcie, altar-piece (the entomb- 
ment) and frescoes by Salviati. 

On the left of the west door is the tomb of Cardinal 
Andrea of Austria, nephew of Ferdinand II., who died 1650; 
on the right that of Cardinal Enckenovirt, died 1500. In 
the pas.^agc towards the .s.icristy is a fine bas-relief, repre- 



ST A. MARIA BELLA PACE. 447 

senting Gregory XIII. giving a sword to the Duke of 
Cleves. 

Close to this church is that of Sta. Maria della Face, 
built in 1487, by Baccio Pintelli, to fulfil a curious ex-voto 
made by Sixtus IV. Formerly there stood here a little 
chapel dedicated to St. Andrew, in whose portico was an 
image of the Virgin. One day a drunken soldier pierced 
the bosom of this Madonna with his sword, when blood 
miraculously spirted forth. Sixtus IV. (Francesco della 
Rovere, 147 1 — 84) visited the spot with his cardinals, and 
vowed to compensate the Virgin by building her a church, 
if she would grant peace to Europe and the Church, then 
afflicted by a cruel war with the Turks. Peace was restored, 
and the Church of '' St. Mary of Peace " was erected by the 
grateful pope. Pietro da Cortona added the peculiar semi- 
circular portico under Alexander VII. The interior has 
only a short nave ending under an octagonal cupola. 

Above the ist chapel on the right (that of the Chigi 
family) are the Four Sibyls of Raphael. 

'*This is one of Raphael's most perfect works: great mastery is 
shown in the mode of filling and taking advantage of the apparently un- 
favourable space. The angels who hold the tablets to be written on, or 
read by the Sibyls, create a spirited variety in the severe symmetrical 
arrangement of the whole. Grace in the attitudes and movements, 
with a peculiar harmony of form and colour, pei"vade the whole picture ; 
but important restorations have unfortunately become ne&essary in 
several parts. An interesting comparison may be instituted between 
this work and the Sibyls of Michael Angelo. In each we find tlie pecu- 
liar excellence of the great masters ; for while Michael Angelo's figures 
are grand, sublime, profound, the fresco of the Pace bears the impress of 
Raphael's severe and ingenious grace. The four Prophets, on the wall 
over the Sibyls, were executed by Timoteo della Vite, after drawings 
by Raphael." — Ktcgler. 

"The Sibyls have suffered much from time, and more, it is said, 
from restoration ; yet the forms of Raphael, in all their loveliness, 
all their sweetness, are still before us ; they breathe all the soul, the 
sentiment, the chaste expression, and purity of design that characterize 
his works. The dictating angels hover over the heads of the gifted 
maids, one of whom writes with rapid pen the irreversible decrees of 
Fate. The countenances and musing attitudes of her sister Sibyls 
express those feelings of habitual thoughtfulness and pensive sadness 
natural to those who are cursed with the knowledge of futurity, and all 
its coming evils." — Eaton's Rome. 

"The Sibyls are simply beautiful women of antique form, to whom, 
with the aid of books, scrolls, and inscriptions, the Sibyllic idea has 
been given, but who would equally pass for the abstract personifications 
of virtues or cities. They are four in number, — the Cumana, Phrygia, 



443 . IVALA'S IN ROME. 

Persica, and Tiburtina ; all, with the exception of the last, in the ful- 
ness of youth and beauty, and occupied, apparently, with no higher aim 
than that of displaying both. Indeed, the Tiburtina matches ill with 
the rest, either in character or action. She is aged, has an open book 
on her lap, but turns with a strange and rigid action as if suddenly 
called. The very comparison with her tends to divest the others of the 
vSibylline character. In this, the angels who float above, and obviously 
inspire them, also help, for while adding to the charm of the compo- 
sition, which is one of the most exquisite as to mere art, they interfere 
with that inwardly inspired expression which all other art has given to 
these women. 

" The inscription on the scroll of the Cumaean Sibyl gives in Greek 
the words, ' The Resurrection of the Dead.' The Persica is writing on 
the scroll held by the angel, ' He will have the lot of Death.' The 
beautiful Phrygia is presented with a scroll, ' The heavens surround the 
sphere of the earth ; ' and the Tiburtina has under her the inscription, 
' I will open and arise.' The fourth angel floats above, holding the 
seventh line of Virgil's Eclogue, 'Jam nova progenies.'" — Lady East- 
lake's ' History of Our Lord! 

The I St chapel on the left has monuments of the Ponzetti 
family. The 2nd chapel on left has an altar-piece of the 
Virgin between St. Bridget and St. Catherine, by Baldassare 
Feruzzi ; in the front of the picture kneels the donor, Car- 
dinal Ponzetti. The ist altar on the right has the Adoration 
of the Shepherds by Senjioneta. The 2nd chapel, the 
burial-place of the Santa Croce family, has rich carved 
work of the sixteenth century. The high altar, designed by 
Carlo Maderno, has an ancient (miracle-working) Madonna, 
Of the four paintings of the cupola, the Nativity of the 
Virgin is by Fraiicesco Vanni; the Visitation, Carlo Ma- 
ratta ; the Presentation in the Temple, Baldassare Feruzzi ; 
the Death of the Virgin, Morandi. 

Newly-married couples have the touching custom of at- 
tending their first mass here, and invoking " St. Mary of 
Peace " to rule the course of their new life. 

The Cloister of the Co?iveJit, entered on the left under the 
dome, was designed by Bramante for Cardinal Caraffa in 
1504. 

From the portico of the church the Via in Parione leads 
to the Via del Governo Vecchio. Here, on the right, is the 
Falazzo del Governo Vecchio, with a richly-sculptured door- 
way, and ancient cloistered court. 

Proceeding as far as the Piazza del Orologio, we see on 
the right an eminence known as Monte Giordano, supposed 
to be artificial, and to have arisen from the ruins of ancient 
buildings. 



THE CHJESA NUOVA. 449 

Its name is derived from Giordano Orsini, a noble of one of the 
oldest Roman families, who built the palace there, which is now known 
as the Palazzo Gabrielliy and which has rather a handsome fountain. Il 
was probably in consequence of the name Jordan, that this hillock was 
chosen in mediaeval times as the place where the Jews in Rome received 
the newly-elected pope on his way to the Lateran, and where their 
elders, covered with veils, presented him, on their knees, with a copy of 
the Pentateuch bound in gold. Then the Jews spoke in Hebrew, say- 
ing, " Most holy Father, we Hebrew men beseech your Hohness, in the 
name of our synagogue, to vouchsafe to us that the Mosaic Law, given 
on Mount Sinai by the Almighty God to Moses our priest, may be con- 
firmed and approved, as also other eminent popes, the predecessors of 
your Holiness, have approved and confirmed it." And the pope replied, 
" We confirm the Law, but we condemn your faith and interpretation 
thereof, because He who you say is to come, the Loi'd Jesus Christ, is 
come already, as our Church teaches and preaches." 

Turning to the left, we enter a piazza, one side of which 
is occupied by the convent of the Oratorians, and the vast 
Church of Santa Maria in Valicella, or the Chiesa Nuova^ 
built by Martino Lunghi for Gregory XIII. and S. Filippo 
Neri. The fagade is by Rughesi. The decorations of 
the magnificently-ugly interior are partly due to Pietro 
da Cortona, who painted the roof and cupola. 

On the left of the tribune is the gorgeous Chapel of S. 
Filippo JVeri, containing the shrine of the saint, rich in lapis- 
lazuli and gold, surmounted by a mosaic copy of the picture 
by Gnido in the adjoining convent. 

On the right, in the ist chapel, is the Crucifixion, by Sci- 
pione Gaeiani ; in the 3rd chapel, the Ascension, Maziano, 
On the left, in the 2nd chapel, is the Adoration of the Magi, 
Cesare Nebbia ; in the 3rd chapel, the Nativity, Durante 
Alberti ; in the 4th chapel, the Visitation, Barocdo. In the 
left transept are statues of SS. Peter and Paul, by Vaholdo^ 
and the Presentation in the Temple, by Bai'occio. "When S. 
Filippo Neri saw this picture, he said to the painter " Ma 
come avete ben fatto ! — Che vera somiglianza \ — E cosi che 
mi ha apparato tante volte la Santa Vergine." 

The high altar has four columns of porta-santa. Its 
pictures are by Rubois in his youth; — that in centre re- 
presents the Virgin in a glory of angels \ on the right are 
St. Gregory, S. Mauro, and St. Papias; on the left St. 
Domitilla, St. Nereus, and St. Achilleus. 

The Sacristy, entered from the left transept, is by Maru- 
celH. It has a grand statue of S, Filippo Neri, by Algardi. 
The ceiling is painted by Pietro da Cortona — the subject 



4SO IVALA'S IN ROME. 

is an angel bearing the instruments of the passion to 
heaven. 

The Monastery, built by Borromini, contains the magni- 
ficent library founded by S. Filippo. The cell of the saint 
is accessible, even to ladies. It retains his confessional, 
chair, shoes, rope-girdle, — and also a cast taken from his 
face after death, and some pictures which belonged to him, 
including one of Sta. Francesca Romana, and the portrait 
of an archbishop of Florence. In the private chapel ad- 
joining, is the altar at which he daily said mass, over which 
is a picture of his time. Here also are the crucifix which 
was in his hands when he died, his candlesticks, and some 
sacred pictures on tablets which he carried to the sick. The 
door of the cell is the same, and the little bell by which he 
summoned his attendant. In a room below is the carved 
coffin in which he lay in state, a picture of him lying dead, 
and the portrait by Guerchw from which the mosaic in the 
church is taken. A curious picture in this chamber repre- 
sents an earthquake at Beneventum, in which Pope Gregory 
XIV. believed that his life was saved by an image of S. 
Filippo. When S. Filippo Nero died, — as in the case of S. 
Antonio, — the Catholic world exclaimed intuitively, "II 
Santo e morto ! '^ 

" Let the world flaunt her glories ! each glittering prize, 
Though tempting to others, is naught in my eyes. 
A child of St. Philip, my master and guide, 
I would live as he lived, and would die as he died. 

* ' If scanty my fare, yet how was he fed ? 

On olives and herbs and a small roll of bread. 

Are my joints and bones sore with aches and with pains ? 

Philip scourged his young flesh with fine iron chains. 

*' A closet his home, where he, year after year, 
Bore heat or cold greater than heat or cold here ; 
A rope stretch'd across it, and o'er it he spread 
His small stock of clothes ; and the floor was his bed. 

** One lodging besides ; God's temple he chose, 
And he slept in its porch his few hours of repose ; 
Or studied by light which the altar-lamp gave, 
Or knelt at the martyr's victorious grave." 

J. H. Newman, 1857. 

The church of the Chiesa Nuova belongs exclusively to 
the Oratorian Fathers. Pope Leo XII. wished to turn it 
into a parish church. 



«'"^ THE CHIESA NUOVA. 451 

"It was said that the superior of the house took, and showed, to the 
Holy Father, an autograph memorial of the founder St. Philip Neri to 
the pope of his day, petitioning that hischui-ch should never be a parish. 
And below it was written that pope's promise, also in his own hand, that 
it never should. This pope was St. Pius V. Leo bowed to such au- 
thorities, said that he could not contend against two saints, and altered 
his plans." — Wiseman^ s Life of Leo XLI. 

" S. Filippo Neri was good-humoured, witty, strict in essentials, 
indulgent in trifles. He never commanded ; he advised, or perhaps 
requested : he did not discourse, he conversed : and he possessed, in a 
remarkable degree, the acuteness necessaiy to distinguish the peculiar 
merit of every character." — Ranke, 

" S. Filippo Neri laid the foundation of the Congregation of Orato- 
rians in 1551. Several priests and young ecclesiastics associating them- 
selves with him, began to assist him in his conferences, and in reading 
prayers and meditations to the people in the Church of the Holy Trinity. 
They were called Oratorians, because at certain hours every morning 
and afternoon, by ringing a bell, they called the people to the church to 
prayers and meditations. In 1564, when the saint had formed his con- 
gregation into a regular community, he preferred .several of his young 
ecclesiastics to holy orders ; one of M'hom was the eminent Caesar Ba- 
ronius, whom, for his sanctity, Benedict XIV., by a decree dated on 
the 1 2th of January, 1745, honoured with the title of 'Venerable Servant 
of God.' At the same time he formed his disciples into a community, 
using one common purse and table, and he gave them rules and statutes. 
He forbade any of them to bind themselves to this state by vow or oath, 
that all might live together joined only by the bands of fervour and holy 
charity ; labouring with all their strength to establish the kingdom of 
Christ in themselves by the most perfect sanctification of their own souls, 
and to propagate the same in the souls of others, by preaching, instruct- 
ing the ignorant, and teaching the Christian doctrine." — Alban Butler. 

" S. Filippo Neri exacted from his scholars and associates various 
undignified outward acts. He required from a young Roman prince, 
who wished to enjoy the distinction of being a member of his Order, 
that he should walk through Rome with a fox's tail fastened on behind: 
and when the prince declined to submit to this, he was declined 
admission to the Order. Another was made to go through the city 
without a coat ; and another, with torn and tattered sleeves. A noble- 
man took compassion on the last, and offered him a new pair of sleeves: 
the youth declined, but afterwards, by command of the master, was 
obliged gratefully to fetch and wear them. During the building of the 
new church, he compelled his disciples to bring up the materials like day 
labourers, and to lay their hands to the work." — Goethe, Romische Brief e. 

It was in the piazza in front of this church that (during 
the reign of Clement XIV.) a beautiful boy was wont to 
improvise wonderful verses to the admiration of the crowds 
who surrounded him. This boy was named Trapassi, and 
was the son of a grocer in the neighbourhood. The Arca- 
dian Academy changed his name into Greek, and called 
him " Metastasio." 



452 WALKS IX ROME. f^ 

From the corner of the piazza in front of the Chiesa 
Nuova, the Via Calabraga leads into the Via Monserrato, 
which it enters between Sta. Lucia del Gonfalone on the 
right, and S. Stefano in Piscinula on the left ; — then, passing 
on the right S. Giacomo in Aino — behind which, and the 
Palazzo Ricci, is Santo Spirit© dei Napolitani, a much 
frequented and popular little church — we reach Sfa. Maria 
dl Monserrato, built by Sangallo, in 1495, where St. Ignatius 
Loyola was wont to preach and catechise. 

Here, behind the altar, under a stone unmarked by any 
epitaph, repose at last the remains of Pope Alexander VL, 
Rodrigo Borgia (1492 — 15Q3), — the infamous father of the 
beautiful and wicked Caesar and Lucretia Borgia, who is 
believed to have died from accidentally drinking in a vine- 
yard-banquet the poison which he had prepared for one of 
his own cardinals. When exhumed and turned out of the 
pontifical vaults of St. Peter's by Julius IL, he found a 
refuge here in his national church. The bones of his uncle 
Calixtus III., Alfonso Borgia (1455 — 58), rest in the same 
grave. 

A little further, on the left, is the Church of S. Tommaso 
d€gli Inglesi, rebuilt 1870, on the site of a church founded 
by Offa, king of the East Saxons in 775, but destroyed by 
fire in 817. It was rebuilt, and was dedicated by Alexander 
III. (1159) to St. Thomas a Becket, who had lodged in the 
adjoining hospital when he was in Rome: Gregory XIII., 
in 1575, united the hospital which existed here with one for 
English sailors on the Ripa Grande, dedicated to St. Edmund 
the Martyr, and converted them into a college for English 
missionaries. 

"Notliing like a hospice for English pilgrims existed till the first 
great Jubilee, when John Shepherd and his wife Alice, seeing this ^\•an^, 
settled in Rome, and devoted their substance to the support of poor 
palmers from their own country. This small beginning grew into suffi- 
cient importance for it to become a royal charity; the King of England 
became its patron, and named its rector, often a person of high con- 
sideration. Amcmg the fragments of old monuments scattered about the 
house by the revolution, and now collected and arranged in a corridor of 
the college, is a shield surmounted by a crown, and carved with the 
ancient arms of England, lions or lionceaux, and fleur-de-lis, quarterly. 
This used formerly to be outside the house, and under it was inscribed : 

* Hoec conjuncta duo, 
^ Successus debita legi, 



S. TOMMASO DEGLI INGLESI. 45 5 

Anglia dant, regi 
Francia signa suo. 
Laurentius Chance me fecit M.ccc.xij.' " 

Cardinal Wiseman. 

In the hall of the college are preserved portraits of Roman 
Catholics who suffered for their faith in England under 
Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. 

The small cloister has a beautiful tomb of Christopher 
Bainbrigg, archbishop of York, British envoy to Julius II., 
who died at Rome 15 14, and a monument of Sir Thomas 
Dereham, ob. 1739. Against the wall is the monument of 
Martha Swinburne, a prodigy of nine years old, inscribed : 

"Memoriae Martha;, Henrici et Marthse Swinburne . Nat . Angliae . 
ex . Antiqua . et . Nobili . Familia . Caphseton . Northumbrige . Paren- 
tes . Moestiss . Filise . Carissimse . Pr . Quae . Ingenio • Excellenti . 
Forma , Eximia . Incredibili . Doctrina . Moribus . Suavissimis . Vix . 
Ann , viii . Men . xi. Tantum . Prserepta . Romse . v . id . sept . AN . 

MDCCLXVIir. 

"Martha Swinburne, born Oct. X. MDCCLViii. Died Sept. Viir. 
MDCCLXVii. Her years were few, but her life was long and full. 
She spoke English, French, and Italian, and had made some pro- 
gress in the Latin tongue; knew the English and Roman histories, 
arithmetic, and geography ; sang the most difficult music at sight with, 
one of the finest voices in the world, was a great proficient on the harpsi- 
chord, wrote well, and danced many sorts of dances with strength and ele- 
gance. Her face was beautiful and majestic, her body a perfect model, 
and all her motions graceful. Her docility in doing everything to make 
her parents happy, could only be equalled by her sense and aptitude. 
With so many perfections, amidst the praises of all persons, from the 
sovereign down to the beggar in the street, her heart was incapable of 
vanity ; affectation and arrogance were unknown to her. Her beauty 
and accomplishments made her the admiration of all beholders, the love 
of all that enjoyed her company. Think, then, what the pangs of her 
wretched parents must be on so cruel a separation. Their only comfort 
is in the certitude of her being completely happy beyond the reach of 
pain, and for ever freed from the miseries of this life. She can never 
feel the torments they endure for the loss of a beloved child. Blame 
them not for indulging an innocent pride in transmitting her memory to 
posterity as an honour to her family and to her native country England. 
Let this plain character, penned by her disconsolate father, draw a tear 
of pity from every eye that peruses it." 

The arm of St. Thomas k Becket is the chief '' relic " 
preserved here. 

At the end of the street are two exceedingly ugly little 
churches — very interesting from their associations. On the 
right is St. Girolaino della Caritd, founded on the site of the 
house of Sta Paula, where she received St. Jerome upon his 



454 WALKS IN ROME. 

being called to Rome from the Thebaid by Pope Damasus 
in 392. Here he remained for three years, till, embittered 
by the scandal excited by his residence in the house of the 
widow, he returned to his solitude. 

In 1519 S. Fihppo Neri founded here a Confraternity for 
the distribution of dowries to poor girls, for the assistance of 
debtors, and for the maintenance of fourteen priests for the 
visitation and confession of the sick. 

"Lorsque St. Philippe de Neri fut pretre, il alia se loger a Saint- 
Jerome delta Carita, oil il demeura trente-cinq- ans, dans la societe des 
pieux ecclesiastiques qui administraient les sacrements dans cette pa- 
roisse. Chaque soir, Philippe ouvrait, dans sa chambre qui existe encore, 
des conferences sur tous les points du dogme catholique ; les jeunes 
gens affluaient a ces saintes reunions : on y voyait Baronius ; Bordini, 
qui fut archeveque ; Salviati, frere du cardinal ; Tarugia, neveu du papa 
Jules III. Un desir ardent d'exercer ensemble le ministere de la predi- 
cation et les devoirs de la charite porta ces pieux jeunes gens a vivre en 
commun, sous la discipline du vertueux pretre, dent le parole etait si 
puissante sur leurs coeurs." — Gournerie. 

The masterpiece of Domenichino, the Last Communion 
of St. Jerome, in which Sta. Paula is introduced kissing the 
hand of the dying saint, hung in this church till carried off 
to Paris by the French. 

Opposite this is the Church of Sta. Brigitta, on the site of 
the dweUing of the saint, a daughter of the house of Brahd, 
and wife of Walfon, duke of Nericia, who came hither in 
her widowhood, to pass her declining years near the Tomb 
of the Apostles. With her, lived her daughter St. Catherine 
of Sweden, who was so excessively beautiful, and met with 
so many importunities in that wild time (1350), that she 
made a vow never to leave her own roof except to visit the 
churches. The crucifix, prayer-book, and black mantle of 
St. Bridget are preserved here.* 

"St. Bridget exercised a reformatory influence as well upon the 
higher class of the priesthood in Rome as in Naples. For she did not 
alone satisfy herself with praying at the graves of the martyrs, she earn- 
estly exhorted bishops and cardinals, nay, even the pope himself, to a 
life of the true worship of God and of good works, from which they had 
almost universally fallen, to devote themselves to worldly ambition. 
She awoke the consciences of many, as well by her prayers and remon- 
strances, as by her example. For she herself, of a rich and noble race, 
that of a Brahe, one of the nobles in Sweden, yet lived here in Rome, 
and laboured like a truly humble servant of Christ. ' We must walk 

* There is a chapel dedicated to St. Bridget in S. Paolo fuori Mura. Sion HousCf 
.n England, was a famous convent of the Brigittines. " . -. 



PALAZZO FARNESE. 455 

barefoot over pride, if we would overcome it,' said she, and Brigitta 
Brahe did so ; and, in so doing, overcame those proud hearts, and won 
them to God." — Frede7'ika Brejiier. 

We now reach the Palazzo Farnese, — the most magnificent 
of all the Roman palaces, — begun by Paul III., Alessandro 
Farnese (1534 — 50), and finished by his nephew, Cardinal 
Alessandro Farnese. Its architects were Antonio di San- 
gallo, Michael Angelo, and Giacomo della Porta, who 
finished the fagade towards the Tiber. The materials were 
plundered partly from the Coliseum and partly from the 
theatre of Marcellus ; the granite basons of the fountains 
in front are from the baths of Caracalla. The immense size 
of the blocks of travertine used in the building give it a 
solid grandeur. 

This palace was inherited by the Bourbon kings of Naples 
by descent from Elizabetta Farnese, who was the last of her 
line, and it has for the last few years been the residence of 
the Neapolitan Court, who have lived here in the utmost se- 
clusion since their exile. For this reason the palace is now 
very seldom shown. Its vast halls are painted with the 
masterpieces of Annibale Caracci — huge mythological sub- 
jects, — and a few frescoes by Guido, Domenichino, Daniele 
da Volterra, Taddeo Zucchero, and others ; but there has 
not been much to see since the dispersion of the Farnese 
gallery of sculpture, of which the best pieces (the Bull, Her- 
cules, Flora, &c.), are in the museum at Naples. In the 
courtyard is the sarcophagus which is said once to have held 
the remains of Cecilia Metella. 

*' The painting the gallery at the Farnese Palace is supposed to have 
partly caused the death of Caracci. Without fixing any price he set 
about it, and employed both himself and all his best pupils nearly seven 
years in perfecting the work, never doubting that the Farnese family, 
who had employed him, would settle a pension upon him, or keep him 
in their service. When his work was finished they paid him as you 
would pay a house-painter, and this ill-usage so deeply affected him, that 
he took to drinking, and never painted anything great afterwards." — 
Miss Ba'ry'i jfotcrnals. 

Behind the Palazzo Farnese runs the Via Giulia, which 
contains the ugly fountain of the Mascherone. Close to the 
arch which leads to the Farnese gardens is the church of 
Sta. Maria della Afo7'te, or DeW Orazio?ie, built by Fuga. It 
is in the hands of a pious confraternity who devote them- 
selves to the burial of the dead 



433 WALKS IX ROME. 

" L'eglise de la Bon fie- Mart a son caveau, decoredans le style funebre 
comme le couvent des Capucins. On y conserve aussi elegamment 
que possible les os des noyes, asphyxies et autres victimes des accidents. 
La confrerie de la Boiuie-Mort va chercher les cadavres ; un sacristain 
assez adroit les desseche et les dispose en ornements. J'ai cause quel- 
que temps avec cet artiste : ' Monsieur,' me disait-il, * je ne suis heureux 
qu'ici, au milieu de mon oeuvre. Ce n'est pas pour les quelques ecus que 
je gagne tous les jours en montrant la chapelle aux etrangers ; non ; 
mais ce monument que j'entretiens, que j'embellie, quej'egaye par mon 
talent, est devenu Torgueil et la jt)ie de ma vie.' II me montra ses 
materiaux, c'est-a-dire quelques poignees d'ossements jetes en tas dans 
un coin, fit I'eloge de la pouzzolane, et temoigna de son mepris pour la 
chaux. * La cliaux brule les os,' me dit-il, ' elle les fait tomber en 
poussiere. On ne pent faire rien de bon avec les os qui ont ete dans la 
chaux. Cast de la drogue [robbcurcia).' " — About. 

Beyond the arch is the Palazzo Falconieri (Avith falcons 
at the corners), built by Borromini about 1650. There is 
something rather handsome in its tall three-arched loggia, 
as seen from the back of the courtyard, which overhangs 
the Tiber opposite the Farnesina, Cardinal Fesch (uncle 
of Napoleon I.), lived here, and here formed his fine gallery 
of pictures. 

"The whole of Cardinal Fesch's collection was dispersed at his 
deatli, having been vainly offered by him, during the last years of his 
life, for sale to the English government, for an annuity of 4000/. per 
anmmi. " — Eaton s Rome 

Further on are the Carceri Nuove, prisons established by 
Innocent X. (appropriately reached by the Via del Mal- 
passo), and then the Palazzo Sacc/ietti, built by Antonio da 
Sangallo for his own residence, and adorned by him with 
the arms of his patron, Paul III., and the grateful inscription, 
" Tu mihi quodcumque hoc rerum est." The collection of 
statues which was formed here by Cardinal Ricci, was re- 
moved to the Capitol by Benedict XIV., and became the 
foundation of the present Capitohne collection. 

In front of the Palazzo Farnese, beyond its own piazza, is 
that known as the Campo di Fiore^ a centre of commerce 
among the working classes. Here the most terrible of the 
Autos da Fe were held by the Dominicans, in which many 
Jews and other heretics were burnt alive. 

One of the most remarkable sufferers here was Giordano Bruno, 
who was born at Nola, a.D. 1550. His chief heresy was ardent 
advocacy of the Cojicrnican system, — the author of which had died ten 
years before his birth. He was also strongly opposed to the philosophy 
of Aristotle, and gave great offence by setting forth views of his own, 



THE CANCELLER/A. 457 

which strongly tended to pantheism. He visited Paris, England, .rnd 
Germany, and everywhere excited hostility by the uncompromising ex- 
pression of his opinions. It was at Venice that he first came into the 
pjower of his ecclesiastical enemies. After six years of imprisonment in 
that citj', he was brought to Rome to be put to death. His execution 
took place in the Campo di Fiore on the 17th of February, 1600, in the 
presence of an immense concourse. It was noted that when the monks 
offered him the crucifix as he was led to the stake, he tunied away and 
refused to kiss it. This put the finishing touch to his career, in the 
estimation of all beholders. Scioppus, the Latinist, who was present at 
the execution, with a sarcastic allusion to one of Bruno's heresies, the 
infinity of worlds, wrote, "The flames carried him to those worlds 
which he had imagined."* 

On the left of this piazza is the gigantic Falace of the Can- 
celleria, begun by Cardinal Mezzarota, and finished in 1494 
by Cardinal Riario, from designs of Bramante. The huge 
blocks of travertine of which it is built were taken from the 
Coliseum. The colonnades have forty-four granite pillars, 
said to have belonged to the theatre of Pompey. The roses 
with which their (added) capitals are adorned are in refer- 
ence to the arms of Cardmal Riario, nephew of Sixtus IV. 

This palace is the seat of the Tribunal of the Cancelleria 
Apostolica. In June, 1848, the Roman Parliament, sum- 
moned by Pius IX., was held here. In July, while the 
deputies were seated here, the mob burst into the council- 
chamber, and demanded the instant declaration of war 
against Austria. On the i6th of November, its staircase 
was the scene of the murder of Count Rossi 

" C'etait le 16 Novembre, 1848, le ministre de Pie IX., voue des 
longtemps a la mort, dont la presse seditieuse disait : ' Si la victime 
condamnee parvient a s'echapper, elle sera poursuivie sans relache, en 
tout lieu, le coupable sera frappe par une main invisible, se fut-il refugie 
sur le sein de sa mere ou dans le tabernacle du Christ.' 

"Dans la nuit du 14 au 15 JSovembre, de jeunes etudiants, reunis 
dans cette pensee, s'exercent sans fremir sur un cadavre apporte a prix 
d'or au theatre Capranica, et quand leurs mains infames furent devenues 
assez sCires pour le crime, quand ils sont certains d'atteindre au premier 
coup la veine jugulaire, chacun se rend a son poste— ' Gardez-vous 
d'aller au Palais Legislatif, la mort vous y attend,' fait dire au ministre 
une Francaise alors a Rome, Madame la Comtesse d-e Menon : ' Ne 
sortez pas, ou vous serez assassine ! ' lui ecrit de son cote la Duchesse 
de Rignano. Mais I'intrepide Rossi, n'ecoutant que sa conscience, 
arrive au Quirinal. A son tour le pape le conjure d'etre prudent, dene 
point s'exposer, afin, lui dit-il, 'd'eviter a nos ennemis un grand crime, 
et a moi une immense douleur.' — ' lis sont trop laches, ils n'oseront 
pas.' Pie IX. le benit et il continue de se diriger vei-s la chancel- 
ierie .... 

* See Penny Cydopaedii, and Lewes's Hist, of Philosophy. 



458 WALKS AV ROME. 

*'. . . . Sa voiture s'arrete, il descend au milieu d'linmmes sf- 
nistres, leiir lance un regard de dedain, et continuant sans crainte ni 
peur, il commence a monter ; la foule le presse en sifflant, Tun le frappe 
sur I'epaule gauche, d'un mouvement instinctif, il reloume la tcte, 
decouvrant la veine fatale, il tombe, se releve, monte quelques marches, 
et retombe inonde de sang." — M. de Bellevue. 

Entered from the courtyard of the palace is the Church 
of SS. Loj'e?izo e Dajitaso, removed by Cardinal Riario in 
1495, from another site, where it had been founded in 560 
by the sainted pope Damasus. It consists of a short nave 
and aisles, and is almost square, with an apse and chapels. 
The doors are by Vignola. At the end of the left aisle is a 
curious black virgin, much revered. Opening from the 
right aisle is the chapel of the Massimi, with several tombs ; 
a good modem monument of Princess Gabrielli, &c. Against 
the last pilaster is a seated statue of S. Hippolytus, Bishop 
of Porto, taken from that at the Lateran. His relics are 
preserved here, with those of S. Giovanni Calabita, and 
many other saints. The tomb of Count Rossi is also here, 
inscribed " Optimam mihi causam tuendam assumpsi, mise- 
rebitur Deus." The story of his death is told in the words : 
" Impiorum consiHo meditata caede occubuit" He was em- 
balmed and buried on the very night of his murder, for fear 
of further outrage. St. Francis Xavier used to preach in 
this church in the sixteenth century. 

Standing a litde back from the street, in the Via de' 
Baullari, is a pretty little palace, carefully finished in all its 
details, and attributed to Baldassare Peruzzi. It is some- 
times called Palazzetto Far7iese, sometimes Palazzo Linotey 
and is now almost in a state of ruin. 

Turning to the left, in front of the Palazzo Famese, we 
reach the Piazza Capo di Ferro, one side of which is occu- 
pied by the Palazzo Spada alia Regola, built in 1564, by 
Cardinal Capodifero, but aftervvards altered and adorned by 
Borromini. The courtyard is very rich in sculptured orna- 
ment. The palace is always visible, but has a rude and 
extortionate porter. 

In a picturesque and dimly-lighted hall on the first-floor, 
partially hung with faded tapestries, is the famous statue 
believed to be that of Pompey, at the foot of which Julius 
Caesar fell. Suetonius narrates that it was removed by 
Augustus from the Curia, and placed upon a marble Janus 
in front of the basilica. Exactly on that spot was the 



PALAZZO SPADA. 459 

existing statue found, lying under the partition-wall of two 
houses, whose proprietors intended to evade disputes, by 
dividing it, when Cardinal Capodifero interfered, and in re- 
turn received it as a gift from Pope Julius III., who bought 
't for 500 gold crowns. 

" And thou, dread statue ! yet existent in 
The austerest form of naked majesty, — 
Thou who beheldest, 'mid the assassins' din, 
At thy bathed base the bloody Caesar lie, 
Folding his robe in dying dignity, 
An offering to thine altar from the queen 
Of gods and men, great Nemesis ! did he die. 
And thou, too, perish, Pompey ? have ye been 
Victors of countless kings, or puppets of a scene ? " 

Byron, Childe Harold. 

" I saw in the Palazzo Spada, the statue of Pompey : the statue at 
whose base Csesar fell. A stern, tremendous figure ! I imagined one 
of greater finish : of the last refinement : full of delicate touches : losing 
its distinctness in the giddy eyes of one whose blood was ebbing before 
it, and settling into some such rigid majesty as this, as Death came 
creeping over the upturned face. " — Dickens. 

" Caesar was persuaded at first by the entreaties of his wife Calpurnia, 
who had received secret warning of the plot, to send an excuse to the 
senate ; but afterwards, being ridiculed by Brutus for not going, was 

carried thither in a litter At the moment when Csesar 

descended from his litter at the door of the hall, Popilius Lsena ap- 
proached him, and was observed to enter into earnest conversation with 
him. The conspirators regarded one another, and mutually revealed 
their despair with a glance. Cassius and others were grasping their 
daggers beneath their robes ; the last resource was to despatch them- 
selves. But Brutus, obsei-ving that the manner of Popilius was that of 
one supplicating rather than warning, restored his companions' confi- 
dence with a smile. Caesar entered ; his enemies closed in a dense 
mass around him, and while they led him to his chair kept off all in- 
truders. Trebonius was specially charged to detain Antonius in con- 
versation at the door. Scarcely was the victim seated, when Tillius 
Cimber approached with a petition for his brother's pardon. The 
others, as was concerted, joined in the supplication, grasping his hands, 
and embracing his neck. Caesar at first put them gently aside, but, as 
they became more importunate, repelled them with main force. Tillius 
seized his toga with both hands, and pulled it violently over his arms. 
Then P. Casca, who was behind, drew a weapon, and grazed his 
shoulder with an ill-directed stroke. Caesar disengaged one hand, and 
snatched at the hilt, shouting, ' Cursed Casca, what means this ? ' — ■ 
* Help,' cried Casca to his brother Lucius, and at the same moment the 
others aimed each his dagger at the devoted object. Caesar for an in- 
stant defended himself, and even wounded one of his assailants with his 
stylus ; but when he distinguished Brutus in the press, and saw the steel 
flashing in his hand also, ' What, thou too, Brutus ! ' he exclaimed, let 
go his hold of Casca, and drawing his robe over his face, made no 

2 H 



4^0 WALKS AY ROME. 

further resistance. The assassins stabbed him through and through, for 
they had pledged themselves, one and all, to bathe their daggers in his 
blood. Brutus himself received a wound in their eagerness and trepida- 
tion. The victim reeled a few paces, propped by the blows he received 
on every side, till he fell dead at the foot of Pompeius' statue." — Aleri- 
vale, ch. xxi. 

The collection of pictures in this palace is little worth 
seeing. Among its other sculptures are eight grand reliefs, 
which, till 1620, were turned upside down, and used as a 
pavement in Sant' Agnese fuori Mura ; and a fine statue of 
Aristotle. 

*' Aristote est a Rome, vous pouvons Taller voir au palais Spada, tel 
que le peignent ses biographes et des vers de Christodore sur une statue 
qui etait a Constantinople, les jambes greles, les joues maigres, le bras 
hors du manteau, exserto brac/iio, comme dit Sidoine Apollinaire d'une 
autre statue qui etait a Rome. Le philosophe est ici sans barbe aussi 
bien que sur plusieurs pierres gravees ; on attribuait a Aristote I'habitude 
de se raser, rare parmi les philosophes et convenable a un sage qui 
vivait a la cour. Du reste, c'est bien la le inaitre de ceiix qui savent, 
selon 1' expression de Dante, corps use par I'etude, tete petite mais qui 
enferme et comprend tout." — Ampere, Hist. Rovi. iii. 547. 

A little further, on the right, is the Church of the Trinitil 
dei Pellegrini, built in 16 14; the facade designed by Fran- 
cesco de' Sanctis. It contains a picture of the Trinity by 
Guido. 

The hospital attached to this church was founded by S. 
Filippo Neri for receiving and nourishing pilgrims of pious 
intention, who had come from more than sixty miles' 
distance, for a space of from three to seven days. It is 
divided into two parts, for males and females. Here, during 
the Holy Week, the feet of the pilgrims are publicly 
washed, those of the men by princes, cardinals, &c., those 
of the women by queens, princesses, and other ladies of 
rank. In this case the washing is a reality, the feet not 
having been " prepared beforehand," as for the Lavanda at 
St. Peter's. 

An authentic portrait of S. Filippo Neri is preserved 
here, said to have been painted surreptitiously by an artist 
who happened to be one of the inmates of the hospital. 
When S. Filippo saw it, he said, "You should not have 
stolen me unawares." 

The building in front of this church is the Monte 
di Pietd, founded by the Padre Calvo, in the fifteenth 
century, to preserve the people from suffering under the 



STA. MARIA LV MONTICELLL 467 

usury of the Jews. It is a government establishment, where 
money is lent at the rate of five per cent, to every class 
of person. Poor people, especially " Donne di facenda," 
who have no work in the summer, thankfully avail them- 
selves of this and pawn their necklaces and earrings, 
which they are able to redeem when the means of sub- 
sistence come back with the return of the forestieri. Many 
Roman servants go through this process annually, and 
though the Monte di Pieta is often a scene of great suffer- 
ing when unredeemed goods are sold for the benefit of the 
establishment, it probably in the main serves to avert much 
evil from the poorer classes. 

A short distance further, following the Via dei Specchi, 
surrounded by miserable houses (in one of which is a beau- 
tiful double gothic window, divided by a twisted column), 
is the small Church of Sta. Maria in Monticelli^ which has a 
fine low campanile of mo. Admission may always be 
obtained through the sacristy to visit the famous " miracle- 
working " picture called " Gesu Nazareno," a modern half- 
length of Our Saviour, with the eyelids drooping and half- 
closed. By an illusion of the painting, the eyes, if watched 
steadily, appear to open and then slowly to close again as 
if falling asleep, — in the same way that many English family 
portraits appear to follow the living bystanders with their 
eyes ; but the effect is very curious. In the case of this 
picture, the pope turned Protestant, and disapproving of 
the attention it excited, caused its secret removal. Re- 
monstrance was made, that the picture had been a " regalo" 
to the church, and ought not to be taken away, and when 
it was believed to be sufficiently forgotten, it was sent back 
by night. The mosaics in the apse of this obscure church 
are for the most part quite modern, but enclose a very 
grand and expressive head of the Saviour of the World, which 
dates from 1099, when it was ordered by Pope Paschal II. 

A little to the left of this church is the Palazzo Santa- 
Croce. This palace will bring to mind the murder of the 
Marcbesa Costanza Santa Croce, by her two sons (because 
she would not name them her heirs), on the day when the 
fate of Beatrice Cenci was trembling in the balance, which 
brought about her condemnation— the then pope, Clement 
VIIL, determining to make her terrible punishment " an 
example to all parricides." 



462 WALKS m ROME. 

Prince Santa Croce claims to be a direct descendant of 
Valerius Publicola, the " friend of the people," who is com- 
memorated in the name of a neighbouring church, " San eta 
Maria de Publicolis." 

This is one of the few haunted houses in Rome : it is said 
that by night two statues of Santa Croce cardinals descend 
from their pedestals, and rattle their marble trains about 
its long galleries. 

Hence a narrow street leads to the Church of S. Car/o a 
Catinari, built in the seventeenth century, from designs of 
Rosati and Soria. It is in the form of a Greek cross. The 
very lofty cupola is adorned with frescoes of the cardinal 
virtues by Dome?iichino, and a fresco of S. Carlo, by Guido, 
once on the facade of the church, is now preserved in the 
choir. Over the high altar is a large picture by Pietro da 
Cortona, of S. Carlo in a procession during the plague at 
Milan. In the first chapel on the right, is the Annunciation, 
by Lanfra7ico ; in the second chapel, on the left, the Death 
of St. Anna, by Andrea Sacchi. On the pilaster of the last 
chapel on the right is a good modern tomb, with delicate 
detail. The cord which S. Carlo Borromeo wore round his 
neck in the penitential procession during the plague at Milan, 
is preserved as a relic here. The Catinari, from whom this 
church is named, were makers of wooden dishes, who had 
stalls in the adjoining piazza, or sold their wares on its steps. 
The street opening from hence (Via de Giubbonari) contains 
on its right the Palazzo Pio ; at the back of which are the 
principal remains of The Theatre of Pompey, which was once 
of great magnificence. In the portico (of a hundred columns) 
attached to this theatre, Brutus sate as praetor, on the morn- 
ing of the murder of Julius Caesar, and close by was the 
Curia, or senate-house, where : 

*' In his mantle muffling up his face, 

Even at the base of Pompey's statue, 

Which all the while ran blood, great Csesar fell." * 

Behind the remains of the theatre, perhaps on the 
very site of the Curia, rises the fine modern Church of 
S. Andrea della Fa//e,f begun in 1591, by Olivieri, and 
finished by Carlo Maderno. The fagade is by Carlo 

* Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act iii. sc. 2. 

t So called from a slight hollow, scarcely now perceptible, left by a reservoir made 
by Agrippa for the public benefit, and used by Nero in his fCtes. 



5. ANDREA BELLA VALLE. 463 

Rainaldi. The cupola is covered with frescoes by Lan- 
franco, those of the four EvangeHsts at the angles being 
by Dojne?iichino, who also painted the flagellation and 
glorification of St. Andrew in the tribune. Beneath the 
latter are frescoes of events in the life of St. Andrew by 
Calabrese. 

'* In the fresco of the Flagellation, the apostle is bound by his hands 
and feet to four short posts set firmly in the ground ; one of the execu- 
tioners, in tightening a cord, breaks it, and falls back; three men pre- 
pare to scourge him with thongs : in the foreground we have the usual 
group of the mother and her frightened children. This is a composition 
full of dramatic life and movement, but unpleasing. "— Jameson s Sacred 
Art, p. 229. 

In the second chapel on the left is the tomb of Giovanni 
della Casa, archbishop of Beneventum, 1556. 

The last piers of the nave are occupied by the tombs of 
Pius II., Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini (1458 — 64), and Pius 
III., Todeschini (1503), removed from the old basilica of 
St. Peter's. The tombs are hideous erections in four stages, 
by Niccolo della Guardia and Pietro da Todi. The 
epitaph of the famous Eneas Sylvius is as good as a 
biography. 

** Pius II., sovereign pontiff, a Tuscan by nation, by birth a native 
of Siena, of the family of the Piccolomini, reigned for six years. His 
pontificate was short, but his glory was great. He reunited a Christian 
Council (Basle) in the interests of the faith. He resisted the enemies of 
the holy Roman see, both in Italy and abroad. He placed Catherine 
of Siena amongst the saints of Christ. He abolished the Pragmatic 
Sanction in France. He re-established Ferdinand of Arragon in the 
kingdom of Sicily. He increased the power of the Church. He estab- 
lished the alum mines which were discovered near Talpha. Zealous 
for religion and justice, he was also remarkable for his eloquence. As 
he was setting out for the war which he had declared against the Turks, 
he died at Ancona. There he had already his fleet prepared, and the 
doge of Venice, with his senate, as companions in arms for Christ. 
Brought to Rome by a decree of the fathers, he was laid in this spot, 
where he had ordered the head of St. Andrew, which had been brought 
him from the Peloponnese, to be placed. He lived fifty-dght years, 
nine months, and twenty-seven days. Francis, cardinal of Siena, raised 
this to the memory of his revered uncle. MCDLXIV." 

Pius III., who was the son of a sister of Eneas Sylvius, 
only reigned for twenty-six days. His tomb was the last to 
be placed in the old St. Peter's, which was pulled down by 
his successor. 

To the right, from S. Andrea della Valle runs the Via 



464 Jf^A LKS A V R OME. 

della Valle, on the right of which is the Pahizzj Vidoni 
(formerly called Caffarelli, and Stoppani), the lower portion 
of which was designed by Raphael, in 15 13, the upper floor 
being a later addition. There are a few antiquities pre- 
served here, among them the " Calendarium Praenestinum " 
of Verrius Flaccus, being five months of a Roman calendar 
found by Cardinal Stoppani at Palestrina. At the foot of 
the stairs is a statue of Marcus Aurelius. At one corner of 
the palace on the exterior is the mutilated statue familiarly 
known as the Abbate Luigi, which was made to carry on 
witty conversation with the Madama Lucrezia near S. Marco, 
as Pasquin did with Marforio. 

To the left from St. Andrea della Valle runs the Via S. 
Paiitaleo7ie^ on the right of which, cleverly fitting into an angle 
of the street, is the gloomy but handsome Palazzo Massimo 
alle Coloime, built c. 1526 by Baldassare Peruzzi. The semi- 
circular portico has six Doric columns.. The staircase and 
fountain are peculiar and picturesque. In the loggia is a 
fine antique lion. 

The palace is not often shown, but is a good specimen of 
one of the smaller Roman princely houses. In the drawing- 
room, well placed, is the famous Statue of the Discobolus, a 
copy of the bronze statue of Myron, found in 1761, upon 
the Esquiline, near the ruined nymphseum knowii. as the 
Trophies of Marius. This is more beautiful and better 
preserved than the Discobolus of the Vatican, of which the 
head is modem. 

" Le tete du discobole Massimi se retourne vers le bras qui lance le 
disque, (nreffTpafifitvov iig T-qv ^lOKocpopov. Cette tete est admirable, ce 
qui est encore une resemblance avec Myron, qui excellait dans les tetes 
comme Polyclete dans les poitrines et Pi-axitele dans les bras." — 
Ampere, iii, 271. 

The entrance-hall has its distinctive dais and canopy 
adorned with the motto of the family " Cunctando Resti- 
tuit," in allusion to the descent which they claim from the 
great dictator Fabius Maximus, who is described by Ennius 
as having " saved the republic by delaying." 

" Napoleon interpclla un Massimo avec cette bnisquerie qui intimidait 
tant de gens : 'Est il vrai,' lui dit-il, ' que vous descendiez de Fabius- 
Maximus ? ' 

*' ' — ^Je ne saurais le prouver,' repondit le noble romain, ' niais c'est un 
bruit qui court depuis plus de mille ans dans notre famille.' '^ — About. 



PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE COLONNE. 465 

On the second floor is a chapel in memory of the tem- 
porary resuscitation to Hfe by S. FiHppo Neri of Paul 
Massimo, a youth of fourteen, who had died of a fever, 
March i6th, 1584. 

" S. Filippo Neri was the spiritual director of the Massimo family; 
it is in his honour that the Palazzo Massimo is dressed up in festal guise 
every i6th of March. The annals of the family narrate, that the son 
and heir of Prince Fabrizio Massimo died of a fever at the age of fourteen, 
and that St. Philip, coming into the room amid the lamentations of the 
father, mother, and sisters, laid his hand upon the brow of the youth, 
and called him by his name, on which he revived, opened his eyes, and 
sate'up — ' Art thou unwilling to die?' asked the saint, 'No,' sighed 
the youth. 'Art thou resigned to yield thy soul to God?' 'lam.' 
'Then go,' said Philip. ' Va, che sii benedetto, e prega Dio per noi.' 
— The boy sank back on his pillow with a heavenly smile on his face 
and expired." — Jameson'' s Monastic Orders, 

The back of the palace towards the Piazza Navona is 
covered with curious frescoes in distemper by Daniele di 
Volterra. 

In buildings belonging to this palace, Pannartz and 
Schweinheim estabhshed the first printing-office in Rome in 
1455. The rare editions of this time bear in addition to 
the name of the printers, the inscription, " In aedibus Petri 
de Maximis." 

"Conrad Sweynheim et Arnold Pannartz s'etablirent pres de 
Subiaco, au monastere de Sainte-Scholastique, qui etait occupe par les 
Benedictins de leur nation, et publierent successivement, avec le con- 
cours des moines, les GLuvres de Lactance, la Cite de Dieu de saint 
Augustin, et le traite de Oratore de Ciceron. En 1467, ils se transpor- 
terent a Rome, au palais Massimi, oil ils s'associerent Jean Andre de 
Bussi, eveque d'Aleria, qui avait etudie sous Victorin de Feltre, et 
dont la science leur fut d'une haute utilite pour la correction de leurs 
textes. Le savant eveque leur donnait son temps, ses veilles : — 'Mal- 
heureux metier,' disait-il, 'qui consiste non pas a chercher des perles 
dans le fumier, mais du fumier parmi les perles ! ' — Et cependant il s'y 
adonnait avec passion, sans meme y trouver I'aisance. Les livres, 
en effet, se vendirent d'abord si mal que Jean-Andre de Bussi n' avait 
pas toujours de quoi se faire faire la barbe. Les premiers livres qu'il 
publia chez Conrad et Arnold furent la Grammaire de Donaius, a trois 
cents exemplaires, et les Epitres familieres de Ciceron, a cinq cent 
cinquante." — Gournerie, Ronie Chretienne, ii. 79, I. 

Further, on the right, is the modernized Chiwch ofS. Pafita- 
leofie, built originally in 12 16 by Honorius III., and given 
by Gregory XV., in 164 1, to S. Giuseppe Calasanza, founder 
of the.Order of the Scolopians, and of the institution of the 



4^6 WALKS IX ROME. 

Scuola Pia. He died in 1648, and is buried here in a por- 
phyry sarcophagus. 

Adjoining this, is the very handsome Palazzo Braschi, the 
last result of papal nepotism in Rome,— built at the end 
of the last century by Morelli, for the Duke Braschi, nephew 
of Pius VI, The staircase, which is, perhaps, the finest in 
Rome, is adorned with sixteen columns of red oriental 
granite." Annual subscription balls for charities are held in 
this palace. 

At the further corner of the Braschi palace stands the muti- 
lated but famous statue called Pasquino, from a witty tailor, 
who once kept a shop opposite, and who used to entertain 
his customers with all the clever scandal of the day. After 
the tailor's death his name was transferred to the statue, on whose 
pedestal were appended witty criticisms on passing events, 
sometimes in the form of dialogues which Pasquino was 
supposed to hold with his friend Marforio, another statue 
at the foot of the Capitol. From the repartees appended 
to this statue the term Pasquinade is derived. 

Pasquin has naturally been regarded as a mortal enemy 
by the popes, who, on several occasions, have made vain 
attempts to silence him. The bigoted Adrian VI. wished 
to have the statue burnt and then thrown into the Tiber, 
but it was saved by the suggestion of Ludovico Suessano, 
that his ashes would turn into frogs, who would croak 
louder than he had done. When Marforio, in the hope of 
stopping the dialogues, was shut up in the Capitoline 
museum, the pope attempted to incarcerate Pasquino also, 
but .he was defended by his proprietor, Duke Braschi. 
Among offensive Pasquinades which have been placed 
here are : 

" Venditur hie Christus, venduntur dogmata Petri, 
Descendam infernum ne quoque vendar ego." 

Among the earliest Pasquinades were those against the 
venality and evil life of Alexander VI. (Rodrigo Borgia, 
1492— 1503): 

"Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum: 

Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest." 
and, 

** Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero — Sextus et iste; 

Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuil." 

and, upon the body of his son Giovanni, murdered by his 



PASQUINO. 467 

brother C?esar Borgia, being fis led up on the following day 
from the Tiber : 

"Piscatorem hominum re te non, Sexte, putemus, 
Piscaris natum retibus ecce tuum." 

In the reign of the warlike Julius II. (1503 — 13), of 
whom it is said that he threw the keys of Peter into the 
Tiber, while marching his army out of Rome, declaring that 
the sword of Paul was more useful to him : 

*'Cum Petri nihil efficiant ad praelia claves, 
Auxilio Pauli forsitan ensis erit." 

and, in allusion to his warlike beard : 

"Hue barbam Pauli, gladium Pauli, omnia Pauli: 
Claviger ille nihil ad mea vota Petrus." 

At a moment of great unpopularity : 

"Julius est Romae, quid abest ? Date, numina, Brutum. 
Nam quoties Romae est Julius, ilia perit," 

In reference to the sale of indulgences and benefices by 
Leo X. : 

** Dona date, astantes ; versus ne reddite; sola 
Imperat aethereis alma Moneta deis." 

and to his love of buffoons : 

** Cur non te tingi scurram, Pasquille, rogasti ? 
Cum Romas scurris omnia jam licent." 

and with reference to the death of Leo, suddenly, under' 
suspicion of poison, and without the sacrament : 

"Sacra sub extrema, si forte requiritis, hora 
Cur Leo non potuit sumere : vendiderat," 

On the death of Clement VII. (1534), attributed to the 
mismanagement of his physician, Matteo Curzio : 

** Curtius occidit Clementem — Curtius auro 
Donandus, per quem publica parta salus. " 

To Paul III. (1534 — 50) w^ho attempted to silence him, 
Pasquin replied : 

" Ut canerent data multa olim sunt vatibus aera; 
Ut taceam, quantum tu mihi, Paule, dabis." 

Upon the spoliation of ancient Rome by Urban 

vin. : 

' ' Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini," 
Upon the passion of Innocent X. (1644 — 55) for his 
sister-in-law, Olympia Maldacchini : 



408 WALKS IN ROME. 

*' Magis amat Olympiam quam Olympum." 

Upon Christina of Sweden, who died at Rome, in 
1689: 

"Regina senza Regno, 
Christiana senza Fede, 
E Donna senza Vergogna. ' 

In reference to the severities of the Inquisition during 
the reign of Innocent XI. (1676 — 89) : 

"Se parliamo, in gal era ; se scriviamo, impiccati ; se stiamoin quiete, 
al santo uffizio. Eh ! — che bisogna fare ? " 

To Francis of Austria, on his visit to Rome : 

" Gaudium urbis, — fletus provinciarum, — risus mundi." 
After an awful storm, and the plunder of the works of 
art by Napoleon occurring together : 

"L'Ahissimo in sii, ci manda la tempesta, 
L'Altissimo qua giii, ci toglia quel che resta, 
E fra le Due Altis^imi, 
Stiamo noi malissimi. " 

During the stay of the French in Rome : 

" I Francesi son tutti ladri." 

" Non tutti— ma Buona parte." 
Against the vain-glorious foUies of Pius VI., Pasquin was 
especially bitter. Pius finished the sacristry of St. Peter's, 
and inscribed over its entrance, " Quod ad Templi Vaticani 
ornamentum publico vota flagitabant, Pius VI. fecit." The 
next day Pasquin retorted : 

" Publica ! mentiris ! Xon publica vota fuere, 
Sed tumidi ingenii vota fuere lui." 

Upon his nepotism, when building the Braschi palace : 

"Tres habuit fauces, et terno Cerberus ore 
Latratus intra Tartara nigra dabat. 
Et tibi plena fame tria sunt vel quatuor ora 
Quce nulli latrant, quemquc sed ilia vocant." 

And in allusion to the self-laudatory inscriptions of this 
pope upon all his buildings, at a time when the two- 
baiocchi loaf of the common people was greatly reduced 
in size ; one of these tiny loaves was exhibited here, with 
the satirical notice, " Munificentia Pii Sexti." 

But perhaps the most remarkable of all Pasquin's pro- 
ductions is his famous Antithesis Christi : 



PASQUINO. 469 

"Christiis regna fugit — Sed vi Papa sul^jugat urbem. 
Spinosam Christus— Triplicem gerit ille coronam, 
Abluit ille pedes — Reges his oscula prrebent. 
Vectigal solvit — Sed clerum hie eximit omnem. 
Pavet oves Christus — Luxum hie sectatur inertem. 
Pauper erat Christus — Regna hie petit omnia mundi. 
Bajulat ille crucem — Hie servis portatur avaris. 
Spemit opes Christus — Auri hicardoretabescit. 
Vendentes pepulit teniplo— Quos suscepit iste. 
Pace venit Christus — Venit hie radiantibus armis. 
Christus mansuetus venit — Venit ille superbus. 
Quos leges dedit hie — Praesul dissolvit iniquus. 
Ascendit Christus — Descendit ad infera Proesul." 

The statue called Pasquin is said to represent Menelaus 
with the body of Patroclus, and to be the same as two 
groups which still exist at Florence, but so little remains of 
either of these heroes, that it could only have been when 
overpowered by " L'esprit de contradiction," that Bernini 
protested that this was " the finest piece of ancient sculpture 
in Rome." 

*' A Tangle que forment deux rues de Rome se voit encore il Pasquino, 
nom donne par le peuple k un des plus beaux restes de la sculpture 
antique. Bernin, qui exagerait, disait le plus beau ; cette assertion fut 
sur le point d'attirer un duel a celui qui se I'etait permise. Tout homme 
qui s'avise d'avoir une opinion sur les monuments de Rome s'applau- 
dira pour son compte, en le regrettant peut-etre, qu'on ne prenne 
plus si a coeur les questions archeologiques." — Ampere, Hist. Rome, 
iii, 440. 

"Jan. 16, 1870. The public opinion of Rome has only one tradi- 
tional organ. It is that mutilated block of marble called Pasquin's 

statue on which are mysteriously affixed by unknown 

hands the frequent squibs of Roman mother-wit on the events of the 
day. That organ has now uttered its cutting joke on the Fathers in 
Council. Some mornings ago there was found pasted in big letters on 
this defaced and truncated stump of a once choice statue the inscription, 
' Libero come il Concilio.' The sarcasm is admirably to the point." 
— Tii7ies. 

Following the Via dell' Anima from hence, on the right, 
opposite the mediaeval Torre Mellina, is the Church of Sanf 
Agnese. It was built in 1642 by Girolamo Rainaldi, in the 
form of a Greek cross, upon the site of the scaffold where 
St. Agnes, in her fourteenth year, was compelled to be 
burnt alive.* When 

" The blessed Agnes, with her hands extended in the midst of the 
flames, prayed thus : * It is to thee that I appeal, to thee, the all-power- 
ful, adorable, perfect, terrible God. O my Father, it is through thy 

* The story of St. Agnes is told by St. Jerome. 



4 TO WALKS IN ROME. 

most blessed Son that I have escaped from themenacesof a sacrilegious 
tyrant, and have passed unblemished through shameful abominations. 
And thus I come to thee, to thee whom I have loved, to thee whon I 
have sought, and whom I have always chosen." — Roman Breviary. 

Then the flames, miraculously changed into a heavenly 
shower, refreshed instead of burning her, and dividing in 
two, and leaving her uninjured, consumed her executioners, 
and the virgin saint cried : — 

**I bless Thee, O Father of my God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who, 
by the power of this thy well-beloved Son, commanded the fire to 
respect me." 

*' At this age, a young girl trembles at an angry look from her 
mother ; the prick of a needle draws tears as easily as a wound. Yet 
fearless under the bloody hands of her executioners, Agnes is immove- 
able under the heavy chains which weigh her down ; ignorant of death, 
but ready to die, she presents her body to the point of the sword of a 
savage soldier. Dragged against her will to the altar, she holds forth 
her arms to Christ through the fires of the sacrifice ; and her hand forms 
even in those blasphemous flames the sign which is the trophy of a 
victorious Saviour. She presents her neck and her two hands to the 
fetters which they bring for her, but it is impossible to find any small 
enough to encircle her delicate limbs." — St. Ambrose. 

The statue of St. Sebastian in this church is an antique, 
altered by Maini, that of St, Agnes is by Ercole Ferraia; the 
bas-relief of St. Cecilia is by Anto7iio Raggi. Over the en- 
trance is the half-length figure and tomb of Innocent X,,- 
Gio, Battista Pamfili 1644 — ^.55), an amiable but feeble 
pope, who was entirely governed by his strong-minded and 
avaricious sister-in-law, Olympia Maldacchini, who deserted 
him on his death-bed, making off with the accumulated 
spoils of his ten years' papacy, which enabled her son, Don 
Camillo, to build the Palazzo Doria Pamfili, in the Corso, 
and the beautiful Villa Doria Pamfili.* 

" After the three days during which the body of Innocent remained 
exposed at St, Peter's, say the memoirs of the time, no one could be 
found who would undertake his burial. They sent to tell Donna 
Olympia to prepare for him a coffin, and an escutcheon, but she 
answered that she was a poor widow. Of all his other relations and 
nephews, not one gave any sign of life ; so that at length the body was 
caTied away into a chamber where the masons kept their tools. Some 
one, out of pity, placed a lighted tallow-candle near the head ; and 
some one else having mentioned that the room was full of rats, and that 
they might eat the corpse, a person was found who was willing to pay 
for a watcher. And after another day had elapsed, Monsignor Scotti, 
the majordomo, had pity upon him, and prepared him a coffin of poplar- 

• Donna Olympia soon after died of the plague at her villa near Viterlio, 



SANT AGNESE. 471 

wood, and Monsignor Segni, Canon of St. Peter's, who had been his 
majordomo, and whom he had dismissed, returned him good for evil, 
and expended tive crowns for his burial." — Gregorovius. 

Beneath the church are vaulted chambers, said to be 
part of the house of infamy where St. Agnes was pubHcly 
exposed * before her execution. 

'*As neither temptation nor the fear of death could prevail with 
Agnes, Sempronius thought of other means to vanquish her resist- 
ance ; he ordered her to be carried by force to a place of infamy, and 
exposed to the most degrading outrages. The soldiers, who dragged 
her thither, stripped her of her garments ; and when she saw herself 
thus exposed, she bent down her head in meek shame and prayed ; and 
immediately her hair, which was already long and abundant, became 
like a veil, covering her whole person from head to foot ; and those who 
looked upon her were seized with awe and fear as of something sacred, 
and dared not lift their eyes. So they shut her up in a chamber, and 
she prayed that the limbs which had been consecrated to Jesus Christ 
should not be dishonoured, and suddenly she saw before her a white 
and shining garment, with which she clothed herself joyfully, praising 
God, and saying, ' I thank thee, O Lord, that I am found worthy to 
put on the garment of thine elect ! ' and the whole place was filled with 
miraculous light, brighter than the sun at noon-day. 

****** 

* ' The chamber, which, for her preservation, was filled with heavenly 
light, has become, from the change of level all over Rome, as well as 
from the position of the church, a subterranean cell, and is now a chapel 
of peculiar sanctity, into which you descend by torchlight. The floor 
retains the old mosaic, and over the altar is a bas-relief, representing St. 
Agnes, with clasped hands, and covered only by her long tresses, while 
two ferocious soldiers drive her before them. The upper church, as a 
piece of architecture, is beautiful, and rich in precious marbles and 
antique columns. The works of art are all mediocre, and of the 17th 
century, but the statue over her altar has considerable elegance. Often 
have I seen the steps of this church, and the church itself, so crowded 
with kneeling worshippers at matins and vespers, that I could not make 
my way among them ;— principally the women of the lower orders, with 
their distaffs and market baskets, who had come thither to pray, 
through the intercession of the patron saint, for the gifts of meekness 
and chastity, — gifts not abounding in these regions." — Jameson^ s Sac7'ed 
Art. 

Here, on the festival of St. Agnes, the papal choir sing 
the antiphons of the virgin saint, and the hymn " Jesu 
Corona Virginum." 

The front of Sant* Agnese opens upon the Piazza Navona, 
a vast oblong square on the site of the ancient Circus 
Agonalis, decorated with three fountains. That in the 

, * " Les maisons de la Place Navone sont assises surla base des anciens giadins du 
cirque de Domitien. Sous ces gradins Ctaieut les voOtes habitSes par des femmes 
perdues." — Ampere, £m/>. ii. 137. 



472 IVALKS LV ROME. 

centre, by Bernini, supports an obelisk brought from the 
Circus of Maxentius, where it was erected in honour of 
Domitian. Around the mass of rock which supports the 
obeUsk are figures of the gods of the four largest rivers 
(Danube, Nile, Ganges, Rio de la Plata). That of the Nile 
veiled his face, said Bernini, that he might not be shocked 
by the fagade which was added by Borromini to the Church 
of St. Agnes. 

" Bernin s'ingera de creuser un des fameux piliers de St. Pierre pour 
y pratiquer un petit escalier montant a la tribune ; aussitot le dome prit 
coup et se fendit. On fut oblige de le relier tout entier avec un cercle 
de fer. Ce n'est point raillerie, le cercle y est encore ; le mal n'a pas 
augerte depuis. Par malheur pour le pauvre cavalier, on trouva dans 
les Memoires de Michel- Ange qu'il avait recommande, sub pcend capitis, 
de ne jamais toucher aux quatre piliers massifs faits pour supporter le 
dome, sachant de quelle masse epouvantable il allait les charger ; le pape 
voulait faire pendre Bernin, qui, pour se redimer, inventa la fontaine 
Navone. ' ' — De Brasses . 

The lower fountain, also by Bernini, is adorned with 
tritons and the figure of a Moor. The great palace to the 
right of the church is the Palazzo Pavifili, built by Rainaldi 
for Innocent X. in 1650. It possesses a ceiling painted by 
Pietro di Corto7ia with the adventures of Eneas. Its 
music-hall is still occasionally used for public concerts. 

It was in this palace that the notorious Olympia Maldac- 
chini, foundress of the Pamfili fortunes, besported herself 
during the reign of her brother-in-law. Innocent X. 

" The great object of Donna Olympia was to keep at a distance from 
Innocent every person and every influence that could either lessen her 
own, or go shares in the profits to be extracted from it. For this, after 
all, was the great and ultimate scope of her exertions. To secure ihe 
profits of the papacy in hard cash ; this was the problem. No appoint- 
ment to office of any kind was made, except in consideration of a pro- 
portionable sum paid down into her own coffers. This often amounted 
to three or four years' revenue of the place to be granted. Bishoprics 
and benefices were sold as fast as they became vacant. One story is 
told of an unlucky disciple of Simon, who on treating with the popess, 
for a very valuable see, just fallen vacant, and hearing from her a price, 
at which it might be his, far exceeding all he could command, per- 
suaded the members of his family to sell all they had for the purpose of 
making this profitable investment. The price was paid, and the 
bishopric was given to him, but with a fearful resemblance to the case 
of Ananias, he died within the year; and his ruined family saw the see 
a second time sold by the insatiable and incorrigible Olympia. 
During the last year of Innocent's life, Olympia literally hardly ever 
([uitlcd him. Once a week, we read, she left the Vatican, secretly by 
night, accompanied by several porters carrying sacks of coin, the pro* 



THE PIAZZA XAVOXA. 473 

ceeds of the week's extortions and sales, to her own palace. And, 
during these short absences, she used to lock the pope into his chamber, 
and take the key with her ! ' — Trollope's Life of Olympia Pamfili. 

On the opposite side of the piazza, some architectural 
fragments denote the half-ruined Church of S. Giacomo degli 
Spagnuoli of the fifteenth century. It possesses a gothic 
rose window, which is almost unique in Rome. There is 
a handsome door on the other side towards the Via della 
Sediola. The lower end of the square near this is occupied 
by the Palazzo Lancellotti^ built by Pirro Ligorio, behind 
which is the frescoed front of Palazzo Massimo, men- 
tioned above. The Piazza Navona has been used as 
a market ever since 1447. In the hot months, the sin- 
gular custom prevails of occasionally stopping the escape 
of water from the fountains, and so turning the square 
into a lake, through which the rich splash about in car- 
riages, and eat ices and drink coffee in the water, while 
the poor look on from raised galleries. It is supposed that 
this practice is a remnant of the pleasures of the Nau- 
machia, once annually exhibited almost on this very spot, 
formerly the Circus Agonalis. 

Vitale Mascardi gives an extraordinary account of the 
magnificent tournament held here in 1634 in honour of the 
visit of Prince Alexander of Poland, when the piazza was 
hung with draperies of gold and silver, and Donna Anna 
Colonna and Donna Costanza Barberini awarded gorgeous 
prizes of diamonds to noble and princely competitors. 

Nearly opposite Sant' Agnese, a short street leads (pass- 
ing on the left, Arvotti's, the famous Roman-scarf shop) to 
the front of the Palazzo Madama, which is sometimes said 
to derive its name from Margaret of Parma, daughter of 
Charles V., who once occupied it, and sometimes from 
Catherine de' Medici, who also lived here, and under whom 
it was altered in its present form by Paolo Marucelli. The 
balcony towards the piazza is the scene every Saturday at 
noon of the drawing of the Roman lottery. 

" In the middle of the balcony, on the rail, is fixed a glass barrel, with 
a handle to turn it round. Behind it stand three or four officials, who 
have been just now ushered in with a blast from two trumpeters, also 
stationed in the balcony. Immediately behind the glass barrel itself 
stands a boy of some twelve or thirteen years, dressed in the white uni- 
form of one of the orphan establishments, with a huge white shovel hat. 
Some time is occupied by the folding, and putting into the barrel, pieces 



474 WALKS IN ROME. 

of paper, inscribed with the numbers, from one onwards. Each of 
these is proclaimed, as folded and put in, by one of the officials who 
acts as spokesman or crier. At last, after eighty-seven, eigl ty-eight, 
and eighty-nine have been given out, he raises his voice to a chant, and 
sings forth, Nicmero novania, ' number ninety,' this completing the 
number put in. 

' And now, or before this, appears on the balcony another character 
— no less a person than a Monsignore, who appears, not in his ordinary, 
but in his more solemn official costume ; and this connects the cere- 
monial directly with the spiritual authority of the realm. And now 
commences the drawing. The barrel having been for some time turned 
rapidly round to shuffle the numbers, the orphan takes off his hat, makes 
the sign of the cross, and having waved his open hand in the air to show 
that it is empty, inserts it into the barrel, and draws out a number, 
giving it to the Monsignore, who opens it and hands it to the crier. 
This latter then proclaims it — ^ Frima-esiraita, numero venti cinque.'' 
Then the trumpets blow their blast, and the same is repeated four times 
more: the proclamation varying each time, Seconda estratta, Terza, 
Quatj-a, Qiiinta, etc., five numbers being thus the whole drawn, out of 
ninety put in. This done, with various expressions of surprise, delight, 
or disappointment from the crowd below, the officials disappear, the 
square empties itself, and all is as usual till the next Saturday at the 
same time. .... 

" In almost every street in Rome are shops devoted to the purchase 
of lottery tickets. Two numbers purchased with the double chance 
of these two numbers turning up are called an ambo, and three pur- 
chased with the treble chance of those three turning up, are called a 
tenio, and, of course, the higher and more perilous the stake, the richer 
the prize, if obtained." — Alford's Letters fj-om Ahvad. 

" Les etrangers qui viennent a Rome commencent par blamer severe- 
ment la loterie. Au bout de quelque temps, I'esprit de tolerance qui 
est dans I'air penetre peu-a-peu jusqu'au fond de leur cerveau ; ils ex- 
cusent un jeu philanthropique qui fournit au pauvre peuple six jours 
d'esperances pour cinq sous. Bientot, pour se rendre compte du me- 
canisme de la loterie, ils entrent euxmemes dans un bureau, en evitant 
de se laisser voir. Trois mois apres, ils poursuivent ouvertement une 
combinaison savante; ils ont une theorie mathematique qu'ils signeraient 
volontiers de leur nom ; ils donnent des le9ons aux nouveaux arrives ; 
ils erigent le jeu en principe et jurent qu'un homme est impardonnable s'il 
ne laisse pas une porte ouverte a la Fortune." — About, Rome Contem- 
poraine. 

The court at the back of the palazzo is now occupied by 
the General Post Office. 

Close by is the Church of S. Luigi dei Francesi, rebuilt 
1589, with a facade by Giacomo della Porta. It contains 
a number of tombs of eminent Frenchmen who have died 
in Rome, and some good pictures. 

Following the right aisle, the second chapel has frescoes 
from the life of Sta. Cecilia, by Do?nenichmo (she gives 
clothes tu the poor,— is crowned by an angel with her 



S. LUIGI DEI FRANC ESI. 475 

husband Valerian, — refuses to sacrifice to idols, — suffers 
martyrdom, — enters into heaven). 

" Domenichino is often cold and studied in the principal subject, 
while the subordinate persons have much grace, and a noble character 
of beauty. Of this the two frescoes in S. Luigi at Rome, from tlie 
life of Sta. Cecilia, are striking examples. It is not the saint herself, 
bestowing her goods from a balcony, who contributes the chief subject, 
but the masterly group of poor people struggling for them below. The 
same may be said of the death of the saint, where the admiration and 
grief of the bystanders are inimitable." — Kiigler. 

" Reclining on a couch, in the centre of the picture, her hand pressed 
on her bosom, her dying eyes raised to heaven, the saint is breathing 
her last ; while female forms, of exquisite beauty and innocence, are 
kneeling around, or bending over her. The noble figure of an old man, 
whose clasped hands and bent brow seem to bespeak a father's affection, 
appears on one side ; and lovely children, in all the playful graces of 
unconscious infancy, as usual in Domenichino's paintings, by contrast 
heighten, yet relieve, the deep pathos of the scene. From above, an 
angel — such an angel as Domenichino alone knew how to paint, a 
cherub form of light and loveliness — is descending on rapid wing, 
bearing to the expiring saint the crown and palm of glory." — Eaton's 
Rome. 

The copy of Raphael's Sta. Cecilia over the altar is by 
Giiido. The fourth chapel has on the right frescoes by 
Girolamo Sicciolante, on the left by Pelhgrino da Bologna^ 
the altar-piece is by Giacomo del Conte. The fifth chapel 
has on the right the monument of Agincourt (ob. 18 14), 
the famous archaeologist, on the left that of Guerin the 
painter. 

The high altar has an Assumption by Bassano. 

The first chapel in the left aisle has a St. Sebastian by 
Massei. In the fifth chapel, of St. Matthew, three pictures 
by Caravaggio represent the vocation and martyrdom of 
that saint. 

" The paintings of Caravaggio at S. Luigi belong to his most com- 
prehensive works. The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, with the angel 
with a palm branch squatting upon a cloud, and a boy running away, 
screaming, though highly animated, is an offensive production. On the 
other hand, the Calling of the Apostle may be considered as a genre 
picture of grand characteristic figures ; for instance, those of the money- 
changers and publican at the table ; some of them counting money, 
others looking up astonished at the entrance of the Saviour." — Kugler. 

" Over the altar is St. Matthew writing his Gospel ; he looks up at 
the attendant angel, who is behind with outspread wings, and in the act 
of dictating. On the left is the Calling of St. Matthew : the saint, who 
has been counting money, rises with one hand on his breast, and turns 
to follow the Saviour : an old man, with spectacles on his nose, examines 
with curiosity the personage whose summons has had such a miraculous 

2 I 



476 WALKS IX ROME. 

effect : a boy is slyly appropriating the money which the apostle has 
thrown down. The third picture is the martyrdom of the saint, who, 
in the sacerdotal habit, lies extended on a block ; while a half-naked 
executioner raises the sword, and several spectators shrink back with 
horror. There is nothing dignified or poetical in these representations ; 
and though painted with all that power of effect which characterized 
Caravaggio, then at the height of his reputation, they have also his 
coarseness of feeling and execution : the priests were (not without reason) 
dissatisfied ; and it required all the influence of his patron. Cardinal 
Giustiniani, to induce them to retain the pictures in the church where 
we now see them." — Jameson's Sacked Art, p. 146. 

Amongst the tombs scattered over this church are those 
of Cardinal d'Ossat, ambassador of Henry IV. ; Cardinal de 
la Grange d' Arquien, father-in-law of Sobieski, who died at 
the age of 105 ; Cardinal de la Tremouille, ambassador of 
Louis XIV. ; Madame de Montmorin, with an epitaph by 
Chateaubriand ; and Claude Lorraine, who is buried at the 
Trinita di Monti. 

The pillars which separate the nave and aisles are of 
splendid Sicilian jasper. They were intended for S. 
Ignazio, but when the Order of the Jesuits was dissolved 
by Clement XIV., he presented them to S. Luigi. 

The site of this church, the Palazzo Madama, and their 
adjoining buildings, was once occupied by the baths of 
Nero. They are commemorated by the name of the small 
church " S. Salvatore in Thermis." 

In front of S. Luigi are the Palaces Patrizi and Giusti- 
niani; and, following — to the right — the Via della Sediola, 
on the left is the entrance to the University of the Sapie7iza, 
founded by Innocent IV. in 1244 as a law school. Its 
buildings were begun by Pius III. and Julius IL, and ex- 
tended by Leo X. on plans of Michael Angelp. The portico 
was built under Gregory XIII. by Giacomo della Porta. 
The northern faQade was erected by Borromini, with the 
ridiculous church (S. Ivo), built in the form of a bee to 
flatter Urban VIII., that insect being his device. The build- 
ing is called the Sapienza, from the motto, " Initium Sapi- 
entiae timor Domini," engraved over the window above the 
principal entrance. Forty professors teach here all the dif- 
ferent branches of law, medicine, theology, philosophy, and 
philology. 

Behind the Sapienza is the small Piazza di S. Enstachio, 
containing on three sides the Giustiniani, Lante, and Mac- 



THE FESTA OF THE BEFANA. 477 

carini palaces, and celebrated for the festival of the Befana,* 
which takes place here. 

" The Piazza and all the adjacent streets are lined with booths covered 
with every kind of plaything for children. These booths are gaily illu- 
minated with rows of candles and the three- wick' d brass lucerne of 
Rome ; and at intervals, painted posts are set into the pavement, crowned 
with pans of grease, with a wisp of tow for wick, from which flames 
blaze and flare about. Besides these, numbers of torches carried about 
by hand lend a wavering and picturesque light to the scene. By eight 
o'clock iw the evening crowds begin to fill the piazza and the adjacent 
streets. Long before one arrives the squeak of penny-trumpets is heard 
at intervals ; but in the piazza itself the mirth is wild and furious, and 
the din that salutes one's ears on entering is almost deafening. The 
object of every one is to make as much noise as possible, and every kind 
of instrument for this purpose is sold at the booths. There are drums 
beating, tamburelli thumping and jingling, pipes squeaking, watchman's 
rattles clacking, penny-trumpets and tin-horns shrilling, the sharpest 
whistles shrieking, — and mingling with these is heard the din of voices, 
screams of laughter, and the confused burr and buzz of a great crowd. 
On all sides you are saluted by the strangest noises. Instead of being 
spoken to, you are whistled at. Companies of people are marching 
together in platoons, or piercing through the crowd in long files, and 
dancing and blowing like mad on their instruments. It is a perfect 
witches' Sabbath. Here, huge dolls dressed as Polichinello or Panta- 
loon are borne about for sale, — or over the heads of the crowd great 
black-faced jumping-jacks, lifted on a stick, twitch themselves in fan- 
tastic fits, — or, what is more Roman than all, long poles are carried 
about strung with rings of hundreds of Giambelli (a light cake, called 
jumble in English), which are screamed for sale at a mezzo baiocco each. 
There is no alternative but to get a drum, whistle, or trumpet, and join 
in the racket, — and to fill one's pocket with toys for the children, and 
absurd presents for one's older friends. The moment you are once in 
for it, and making as much noise as you can, you begin to relish the 
jest. The toys are very odd, particularly the Roman whistles ; some of 
these are made of pewter, with a little wheel that whirls as you blow ; 
others are of terra-cotta, very rudely modelled into eveiy shape of bird, 
beast, or human deformity, each with a whistle in its head, breast, or 
tail, which it is no joke to hear, when blown close to your ears by a 
stout pair of lungs. The scene is extremely picturesque. Above, the 
dark vault of night, with its far stars, the blazing and flaring of lights 
below, and the great, dark walls of the Sapienza and church looking 
down grimly upon the mirth." — Story s Roba di Roma. 

The Church of S. Eiistachio commemorates one, who, 
first a brave soldier of the army of Titus in Palestine, 
became master of the horse under Trajan, and general 
under Hadrian, and who suffered martyrdom for refusing to 
sacrifice to idols, by being roasted alive in a brazen bull 

* A corruption of " Epiphania" — Epiphany. 



478 WALKS IN ROME. 

before the Coliseum, with his wife Theophista, and his sons, 
Agapetus and Theophistus. The relics of these saints 
repose in a porphyry sarcophagus under the high altar. 
The stags' heads on the portico and on the apex of the 
gable refer to the legend of the conversion of St. Eustace. 

" One day, while hunting in the forest, he saw before him a white 
stag, of marvellous beauty, and he pursued it eagerly, an>l the stag fled 
before him, and ascended a high rock. Then Placidus (Eustace was 
called Placidus before his conversion), looking up, beheld, between the 
horns of the stag, a cross of radiant light, and on it the image of the 
crucified Redeemer ; and being astonished and dazzled by this vision, 
he fell on his knees, and a voice which seemed to come from the crucifix 
cried to him, and said, ' Placidus ! why dost thou pursue me ? I am 
Christ, whom thou hast hitherto served without knowing me. Dost thou 
now believe?' And Placidus fell with his face to the earth, and said, 
' Lord, I believe ! ' And the voice answered, saying, * Thou shalt suffer 
many tribulations for my sake, and shalt be tried by many temptations ; 
but be strong and of good courage, and I will not forsake thee.' To 
which Placidus replied, 'Lord, I am content. Do thou give me patience 
to suffer ! ' And when he looked up again the glorious vision had de- 
parted." — Jameson s Sacred Art, p. 792. 

A similar story is told of St. Hubert, St. Julian, and St. 
Felix. 

A fresco of St. Peter, by Pierino del Vaga, in this church, 
was much admired by Vasari, who dilates upon the boldness 
of its design, the simple folds of its drapery, its careful 
drawing and judicious treatment. 

Two streets lead from the Piazza S. Eustachio to — 

The Pantheon, the most perfect pagan building in the city, 
built B.C. 27, by Marcus Agrippa, the bosom friend of 
Augustus Caesar, and the second husband of his daughter 
Julia. The inscription in huge letters, perfectly legible 
from beneath, " m. agrippa. l. f. cos. tertium fecit," 
records its construction. Another inscription on the archi- 
trave, now almost illegible, records its restoration under 
Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla, c. 202, who, " Pan- 
theum vetustate corruptum cum omni cultu restitverunt." 
Some authorities have maintained that the Pantheon was 
originally only a vast hall in the baths of Agrippa, acknow- 
ledged remains of which exist at no great distance ; but the 
name " Pantheum " was in use as early as a.d. 59. 

In A.D. 399 the Pantheon was closed as a temple in 
obedience to a decree of the Emperor Honorius, and in 
608 was consecrated as a Christian church by Pope Boniface 



THE PANTHEON. 479 

IV., with the permission of the Emperor Phocas, under the 
title of Sta. Maria ad Martyres. To this dedication we 
owe the preservation of the main features of the building, 
though it had been terribly maltreated. In 663 the Em- 
peror Constans, who had come to Rome with great pretence 
of devotion to its shrines and relics, and who only staid 
there twelve days, did not scruple, in spite of its religious 
dedication, to strip off the tiles of gilt bronze with which 
the roof was covered, and carry them off with him to 
Syracuse, where, upon his murder, a few years after, they 
fell into the hands of the Saracens. In 1087 it was used by 
the anti-pope Guibert as a fortress, whence he made incur- 
sions upon the lawful pope, Victor III., and his protector, 
the Countess Matilda. In iioi, another anti-pope, Syl- 
vester IV., was elected here. Pope Martin V., after the 
return from Avignon, attempted the restoration of the 
Pantheon by clearing away the mass of miserable buildings 
in which it was encrusted, and his efforts were continued by 
Eugenius IV., but Urban VIII. (1623 — 44), though he spent 
15,000 scudi upon the Pantheon, and added the two ugly 
campaniles, called in derision "the asses' ears," of their 
architect, Bernini, did not hesitate to plunder the gilt 
bronze ceiling of the portico, 450,250 lbs. in weight, to make 
the baldacchino of St. Peter's, and cannons for the Castle 
of S. Angelo. Benedict XIV. (1740 — 58) further despoiled 
the building by 'tearing away all the precious marbles which 
lined the attic, to ornament other buildings. 

The Pantheon was not originally, as now, below the level 
of the piazza, but was approached by a flight of five steps. 
The portico, which is no feet long and 44 feet deep, is 
supported by sixteen grand Corinthian columns of oriental 
granite, 2>^ feet in height. The ancient bronze doors remain. 
On either side are niches, once occupied by colossal statues 
of Augustus and Agrippa. 

*'Agrippa wished to dedicate the Pantheon to Augustus, but he 
refused, and only allowed his statue to occupy a niche on the right of the 
peristyle, while that of Agrippa occupied the niche on the left." — 
Merlvale. 

The Interior is a rotunda, 143 feet in diameter, covered 
by a dome. It is only lighted by an aperture in the centre, 
28 feet in diameter. - Seven great niches around the walls 
once contained statues of different gods and goddesses, that 



48o WALKS IN ROME. 

of Jupiter being the central figure. All the surrounding 
columns are of giallo-antico, except four, which are of 
pavonazzetto, painted yellow. It is a proof of the great 
value and rarity of giallo-antico, that it was always impos- 
sible to obtain more to complete the set. 

" L'interieur du Pantheon, comme I'exterieur, est parfaitement con- 
sei"ve, et les edicules, places dans le pourtour du temple ferment les 
chapelles de I'eglise. Jamais la simplicite ne fut alliee a la grandeur 
dans une plus heureuse harmonic. Le jour, tombant d'en haut et glis- 
sant le long des colonnes et des parois de marbre, porte dans I'ame un 
sentiment de tranquillite sublime, et donne a tous les objets, dit .Serlio, 
un air de beaute. Vue du dehors, la coupole de plomb qui a remplace 
I'ancienne coupole de bronze couverte de tuiles dorees, fait bien com- 
prendre 1' expression de Virgile, lequel I'avait sous les yeux et peut-etre 
€n vue, quand il ecrivait ; 

. . . . * Media testudine templi.' 

En effet, cette coupole surbaissee ressemble tout a fait a la carapace d'une 
tortue." — Ampere^ Einp. i. 342. 

" Being deep in talk, it so liappened that they found themselves near 
the majestic, pillared portico and huge black rotundity of the Pantheon. 
It stands almost at the central point of the labyrinthine intricacies of 
the modern city, and often presents itself before the bewildered stranger 
when he is in search of other objects. Hilda, looking up, proposed 
that they should enter. 

'* They went in, accordingly, and stood in the free space of that great 
circle, around which are ranged the arched recesses and stately altars, 
formerly dedicated to heathen gods, but Christianized through twelve 
centuries gone by. The world has nothing else like the Pantheon. So 
grand it is, that the pasteboard statues over the lofty cornice do not 
disturb the effect, any more than the tin crowns and hearts, the dusty 
artificial flowers, and all manner of trumpery gewgaws, hanging at the 
saintly shrines. The rust and dinginess that have dimmed the precious 
marble on the walls ; the pavement, with its great squares and rounds 
of porphyry and granite, cracked crosswise and in a hundred direc- 
tions, showing how roughly the troublesome ages have trampled here; 
the grey dome above, with its opening to the sky, as if heaven were 
looking down into the interior of this place of worship, left unimpeded 
for prayers to ascend the more freely : all these things make an impres- 
sion of solemnity, which St. Peter's itself fails to produce. 

" 'I think,' said Kenyon, 'it is to the aperture in the dome — that 
great eye, gazing heavenward — that the Pantheon owes the peculiarity 
of its effect. It is so heathenish, as it were— so unlike all the snugncss 
of our modern civilization ! Look, too, at the pavement directly 
beneath the open space ! So much rain has fallen there, in the last two 
thousand years, that it is green with small, fine moss, such as grows 
ovei- tombstones in damp English churchyards.' 

♦* ' I like better,' replied Hilda, ' to look at the bright, blue sky, roofing 
tlie edifice where the builders left it open. It is very delightful, in a 
breezy day, to see the masses of volute cloud float over the opening, and 



THE PANTHEON. 48 r 

then the snnshhie fall through it again, fitfully, as it does now. Would 
it be any wonder if we were to see angels hovering there, partly in and 
partly out, with genial, heavenly faces, not intercepting the light, but 
transmuting it into beautiful colours ? Look at that broad, golden 
beam — a sloping cataract of sunlight — which comes down from the 
aperture, and rests upon the shrine, at the right hand of the entrance.' " 
— Hawthorne, 

. . . . " ' Entrons dans le temple,' dit Corinne : 'vous le voyez, il 
reste decouvert presque comme il I'etait autrefois. On dit que cette 
lumiere qui venait d'en haut etait I'embleme de la divinite superieure a 
toutes les divinites. Les paiens out toujours aime les images symboliques. 
II semble en effet que ce langage convient mieux a la religion que la 
parole. La pluie tombe souvent sur ces parvis de marbre ; mais aussi 
les rayons du soleil viennent eclairer les prieres. Quelle s^renite ; quel 
air de fete on remarque dans cet edifice ! Les pa'iens ont divinise la vie, 
at les Chretiens ont divinise la mort : tel est I'esprit des deux cultes-' " — 
Mad. de Stael. 

' ' In the ancient Pantheon, when the music of Christian chaunts rises 
among the shadowy forms of the old vanished gods painted on the 
walls, and the light streams down, not from painted windows in the 
walls, but from the glowing heavens above, every note of the service 
echoes like a peal of triumph, and fills my heart with thankfulness." — 
Mi's. Charles. 

" 'Where,' asked Redschid Pasha, on his visit to the Pantheon, 'are 
the statues of the heathen gods ?' 'Of course they were removed when 
the temple was Christianized,' was the natural answer. ' No,' he re- 
plied, ' I would have left them standing to show how the true God had 
triumphed over them in their own house." — Cai'dinal Wiseman. 

"No, great Dome of Agrippa, thou art not Christian! canst not, 
Strip and replaster and daub and do what they will with thee, be so ! 
Here underneath the great porch of colossal Corinthian columns, 
Here as I walk, do I dream of the Christian belfries above them; 
Or, on a bench as I sit and abide for long hours, till thy whole vast 
Round grows dim as in dreams to my eyes, I repeople thy niches, 
Not with the martyrs, and saints, and confessors, and virgias, and 

children, 
But with the mightier forms of an older, austerer worship; 
And I recite to myself, how 

' eager for battle here 
Stood Vulcan, here matronal Juno, 

And, with the bow to his shoulder faithful, 
He who with pure dew laveth of Castaly 
His flowing locks, who holdeth of Lycia 
The oak forest and the wood that bore him, 
Delos' and Patara's own Apollo. ' " 

A. H C lough. 

Some antiquarians have supposed that the aperture at the 
top of the Pantheon was originally closed by a huge " Pigna," 
or pine-cone of bronze, like that which crowned the summit 
of the mausoleum of Hadrian, and this belief has been 



482 WALA'S ly ROME. 

encouraged by the name of a neighbouring church being 
S. Giovanni della Pigna. 

The Pantheon has become the burial-place of painters. 
Raphael, Annibale Caracci, Taddeo Zucchero, Baldassare 
Peruzzi, Pierino del Vaga, and Giovanni da Udine, are all 
buried here. 

The third chapel on the left contains the tomb of Raphael 
(bom April 6, 1483 ; died April 6, 1520). From the pen of 
Cardinal Bembo is the epigram : 

"Ille hie est Raphael, tiniuit quo sospite vinci 
Rerum magna parens, et moriente mori."* 
*' Raphael moui-ut a Tage de 37 ans. Son corps resta expose pendant 
trois jours. Au moment ou Ton s'appretait a le descendre dans sa der- 
niere demeure, on vit aniver le pape (Leon X.) qui se prostema, pria 
quelques instants, benit Raphael, et lui prit pour la demiere fois la main, 
qu'il arrosa de ses larmes (si prostro innanzi I'estinto Rafaello et baciogli 
quella mano, tra le lagrime). On lui fit de magnifiques funerailles, aux- 
quelles assisterent les cardinaux, les artistes, &c." — A. Du Pays. 
"When Raphael went, 
His heavenly face the mirror of his mind, 
His mind a temple for all lov things 
To flock to and mhabit — when xie went. 
Wrapt in hi'^ cloak, the cloak he wore, 

To sleep b .1 the venerable Dome, 

By those attended, who in life had loved, 
Had worshipped, following in his steps to Fame, 
(Twas on an April-day, when Nature smiles,) 
All Rome was there. But, ere the march began. 
Ere to receive their charge Ihe bearers came. 
Who had not sought him ? And when all beheld 
Him, where he lay, how changed from yesterday, 
Him in that hour cut off, and at his head 
His last great work ;t when, entering in, they looked 
Now on the dead, then on that masterpiece, 
Now on his face, lifeless and colourless. 
Then on those forms divine that lived and breathed, 
And would live on for ages — all were moved ; 
And sighs burst forth, and loudest lamentations." 

Rogers. 

Taddeo Zucchero and Annibale Caracci are buried on 
either side of Raphael. Near the high altar is a monument 
to Cardinal Gonsalvi (1757 — 1824), the faithful secretary and 
minister of Pius VII., by Thorwaldsen. This, however, is 

* " Living, great nature feared he might outvie 
Her works ; and, dyin^, fears herself to die." 

Pope's Translation {without ackno7vled^nent) in 
his Epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller, 
t Raphael lay in state beneath his last great work, the Transfiguration. 



ARCO DI CIAMBELLA. PIAZZA DELIA MINERVA. 483 

only a cenotaph, marking the spot where his heart is 
preserved. His body rests with that of his beloved brother 
Andrew in the church of S. Marcello. 

During the middle ages the pope always officiated here on 
the day of Pentecost, when, in honour of the descent of the 
Holy Spirit, showers of white rose-leaves were continually 
sent down through the aperture during service. 

" Though plundered of all its brass, except the ring which was neces- 
sary to preserve the aperture above ; though exposed to repeated fire ; 
though sometimes flooded by the river, and always open to the rain, no 
monument of equal antiquity is so well preserved as this rotunda. It 
passed with little alteration from the pagan into the present worship ; 
and so convenient were its niches for the Christian altar, that Michael 
Angelo, ever studious of ancient beauty, introduced their design as a 
model in the Catholic church." — Forsyth. 

"Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime — 
Shrine of all saints and temple of all gods, 
From Jove to Jesus— spared and bless'd by time, 
Looking tranquillity, while falls or nods 
Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and man plods 
His way through thorns to ashes — glorious dome ! 
Shalt thou not last ? Time's scythe and tyrant's rods 
Shiver upon thee — sanctuary and home 
Of art and piety — Pantheon ! pride of Rome ! " 

Byron, Childe Harold. 

In the Piazza della Rotonda is a small Obelisk found in 
the Campus Martins. 

" At a few paces frou. the streets where meat is sold, you will find 
gathered round the fountain in the Piazza della Rotonda, a number of 
bird-fanciers, surrounded by cages in which are multitudes of living birds 
for sale. Here are Java sparrows, parrots and parroquets, grey thrushes 
and nightingales, red-breasts {petti rossi), yellow canaiy-birds, beautiful 
sweet-singing little cardelliiii, and gentle ringdoves, all chattering, sing- 
ing, and cooing together, to the constant splashing of the fountain. 
Among them, perched on stands, and glaring wisely out of their great 
yellow eyes, may be seen all sorts of owls, from the great solemn barbi- 
giani, and white-tufted owl, to the curious little civetta, which gives its 
name to all sharp-witted heartless flirts, and the aziola, which Shelley 
has celebrated in one of his minor poems." — Story's Roba di Roma. 

(Following the Via della Rotonda from hence, in the 
third street on the left is the small semicircular ruin called, 
from a fancied resemblance to the favourite cake of the 
people, Arco di Ciambella. This is the only remaining frag- 
ment of the baths of Agrippa, unless the Pantheon itself 
was connected with them.) 

Behind the Pantheon, is the Piazza della Minerva, where 

\ 



484 M^ALKS LV ROME. 

a small Obelisk was erected 1667 by Bernini, on the back of 
an elephant. It is exactly similar to the obelisk in front of 
the Pantheon, and they were both found near this site, where 
they formed part of the decorations of the Campus Martins. 
The hieroglyphics show that it dates from Hophres, a king 
of the 25th dynasty. On the pedestal is the inscription : 

**Sapientis ^gypti insculptas obelisco figuras 
Ab elephanto belluarum fortissimo gestari 

Quisquis hie vides, documentum intellige 
Robustae mentis esse solidam sapientiam sustinere." 

One side of the piazza is occupied by the mean ugly 
front of the Church of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, built in 
1370 upon the ruins of a temple of Minerva founded by 
Pompey. It is the only gothic church in Rome of import- 
ance. In 1848 — 55 it was redecorated with tawdry imitation 
marbles, which have only a good effect when there is not 
sufficient light to see them. In spite of this, the interior is 
very interesting, and its chapels are a perfect museum of 
relics of art or history. The services, too, in this church 
are exceedingly imposing, especially the procession on the 
night before Christmas, the mass of St. Thomas Aquinas, 
and that of " the white mule day." Some celebrated 
divine generally preaches here at 11 a.m. every morning 
in Lent. 

Hither, on the feast of the Annunciation, comes the 
famous " Procession of the White Mule," when the host is 
borne by the grand almoner riding on the papal mule, 
followed by the pope in his glass coach, and a long train of 
cardinals and other dignitaries. Up to the time of Pius VI., 
it was the pope himself who rode upon the white mule, but 
Pius VII. was too infirm, and since his time they have 
given it up. But this procession has continued to be one 
of the finest spectacles of the kind, and has been an oppor- 
tunity for a loyal demonstration, balconies being hung with 
scarlet draperies, and flowers showered down upon the papal 
coach, while the pope, on arriving and departing, has usually 
bei'n received with tumultuous " evivas." 

On the right of the entrance is the tomb of Diotisalvi, a 
Florentine knight, ob. 1482. Beginning the circuit of the 
church by the right aisle, the first chapel has a picture of 
S. Ludovico Bertrando, by Baciccio, the paintings on the 
pilasters being by Muziano. In the second, the ('olonna 



ST A. MARIA SO PR A MINERVA. 485 

Chapel, is the tomb of the late Princess Colonnj (Donna 
Isabella Alvaria of Toledo) and her child, who both died at 
Albano in the cholera of 1867. The third chapel is that of 
the Gabrielli family. The fourth is that of the Annuncia- 
tion. Over its altar is a most interesting picture, shown as 
a work of Fra Angelico, but more probably that of Benozzo 
Gozzoli. It represents Monsignore Torquemada attended 
by an angel, presenting three young girls to the Virgin, who 
gives them dowries : the Almighty is seen in the clouds. 
Torquemada was a Dominican Cardinal, who founded the 
association of the Santissima-Annunziata, which holds its 
meetings in this chapel, and which annually gives dowries to 
a number of poor girls, who receive them from the pope 
when he comes here in state on the 25th of March. On 
this occasion, the girls who are to receive the dowries are 
drawn up in two lines in front of the church. Some are 
distinguished \yj white wreaths. They are those who are 
going to " enter into religion," and who consequently receive 
double the dowry of the others, on the plea that " money 
placed in the hands of religion bears interest for the poor.^' 

Torquemada is himself buried in this chapel, opposite 
the tomb, by Ambrogio Buonvicino, of his friend Urban 
VII., Giov. Battista Castagna, 1590, — who was pope only 
for eleven days. 

The fifth chapel is the burial-place of the Aldobrandini 
family. It contains a faded Last Supper, by Baroccio. 

"The Cenacolo of Baroccio, painted by order of Clement VIII. 
(1594), is remarkable for an anecdote relating to it. Baroccio, who was 
not eminent for a correct taste, had in his first sketch reverted to the 
ancient fashion of placing Satan close behind Judas, whispering in his 
ear, and tempting him to betray his master. The pope expressed his 
dissatisfaction, — ' che non gli piaceva il demonio se dimesticasse tanto 
con Gesu Christo,' — and ordered him to remove the offensive figure." 
— Jajneson's Sacred Art, p. 277. 

Here are the fine tombs erected by Clement VIII. 
(Ippolito Aldobrandini) as soon as he obtained the papacy, 
to his father and mother. Their architecture is by Giacomo 
della Porta, but the figures are by Cordieri, the sculptor of 
Sta. Silvia's statue. At the sides of the mother's tomb are 
figures emblematical of Charity, by that of the father, 
figures of Humility and Vanity. Beyond his mother's tomb 
is a fine statue of Clement VIII. himself (Avho is buried at 
Sta. Maria Maggiore), by Ippolito Buzz. 



486 WALKS IN ROME. 

" Hippolyte Aldobrandini, qui prit le nom de Clement VTII , e'tait 
le cinquieme fils du celebre jurisconsulte Silvestro Aldobrandini, qui, 
apres avoir professe a Pise et joui d'une haute autorite a Florence, ava't 
ete condamne a I'exil par le retourau pouvoir des Medicis ses ennemis. 
La vie de Silvestre devint alors penible et calamiteuse. Depouille de 
ses biens, il sut, du moins, toujours ennoblir son malheur par la dignite 
de son caractere. Sa famille presentait un rare assemblage de douces 
vertus et de jeunes talents qu'une forte education developpait chaque 
jour avec puissance. Appele a Rome par Paul III., qui le nomma 
avocat consistorial, Silvester s'y transporta avec son epouse, la pieuse 
Leta Deti, qui, pendant trente-sept ans, fut pour lui comme son bon 
ange, et avec tous ses enfants, Jean, qui devait etre un jour cardinal ; 
Bernard, qui devint un vaillant guerrier ; Thomas, qui preparait deja 
peut-etre sa traduction de Diogene-Laerce ; Pierre, qui voulut etre 
jurisconsulte comme son pere ; et le jeune Hippolyte, un enfant alors, 
dont les saillies inquietaient le vieillard, car il ne savait comment pour- 
voir a son education et utiliser cette vivacite de genie qui deja brillait 
dans son regard. Hippolyte fut eleve aux frais du cardinal Farnese ; 
puis, tous les emplois, toutes les dignites vinrent successivement au- 
devant de lui, sans qu'il les cherchat autrement qu'en s'en rendant digne." 
— Goiirnerie, Rojtie Ch7'etienne, ii. 238. 

The sixth chapel contains two fine cinque-cento tombs ; 
on the left, Benedetto Superanzio, bishop of Nicosa, ob. 
1495 ; on the right, a Spanish bishop, Giovanni da Coca, 
with frescoes. Close to the former tomb, on the floor, is 
the grave of (archdeacon) Robert Wilberforce, who died at 
Albano in 1857. 

Here we enter the right transept. On the right is a small 
dark chapel containing a fine Crucifix, attributed to Giotto. 
The central, or Caraffa Chapel, is dedicated to St. Thomas 
Aquinas, and is covered with well-preserved frescoes. On 
the right, St. Thomas Aquinas is represented surrounded by 
allegorical figures, by Filippmo Lippi. Over the altar is a 
beautiful Annunciation, in which a portrait of the donor, 
Cardinal Olivieri Caraffa, is introduced. Above is the 
Assumption of the Virgin. On the ceiling are the four 
Sibyls, by Raffaelino del Garbo. 

Against the left wall is the tomb of Paul IV., Gio. Pietro 
Caraffa (1555 — 59), the great supporter of the Inquisition, the 
patron of the Jesuits, the persecutor of the Jews (whom he 
shut up with walls in the Ghetto), — a pope so terrible to 
look upon, that even Alva, who feared no man, trembled at 
his awful aspect. Such he is represented upon his tomb, 
with deeply-sunken eyes and strongly-marked features, with 
one hand raised in blessing — or cursing, and the keys of 
St. Peter in the other. The tomb was designed by Pirro 



STA. MARIA SO PR A MINERVA. 487 

LIgorio ; the statue is the work of Giacomo and 1 ommaso 
Casigiiuola, and being made in marble of different pieces 
and colours, is cited by Vasari as an instance of a sculptor's 
ingenuity in imitating painting with his materials. The 
epitaph runs : 

" To Jesus Christ, the hope and the life of the faithful ; to Paul IV. 
Caraffa, sovereign pontiff, distinguished amongst all by his eloquence, 
his learning, and his wisdom ; illustrious by his innocence, by his 
liberality, and by his greatness of soul ; to the most ardent champion of 
the catholic faith, Pius V. , sovereign pontiff, has raised this monument of 
his gratitude and of his piety. He lived eighty-three years, one month, 
and twenty days, and died the 14th August, 1559, the fifth year of his 
pontificate." * 

On the transept wall, just outside this chapel, is the 
beautiful gothic tomb of Guillaume Durandus, bishop of 
Mende,t with a recumbent figure guarded by two angels, 
the background being occupied by a mosaic of the Virgin 
and Child, by Giovamii Cosmati. 

The first chapel on a line with the choir — the burial-place 
of the Altieri family — has an altar-piece, by Carlo Maratta, 
representing five saints canonized by Clement X., presented 
to the Virgin by St. Peter. On the floor is the incised 
monument of a bishop of Sutri. 

The second chapel — which contains a fine cinque-cento 
tomb — is that of the Rosary. Its ceiling, representing the 
Mysteries of the Rosary, is by Mar cello Venusti; the history 
of St. Catherine of Siena is by Giovaimi de' Vccchi ; the 
large and beautiful Madonna with the Child over the altar 
is attributed to Fra Angelico. Here is the tomb of Cardinal 
Capranica of 1470. 

Beneath the high altar, with lamps always burning before 
. it, is a marble sarcophagus with a beautiful figure, enclosing 
the body of St. Catherine of Siena. In it her relics were 
deposited in 1461, by Antoninus, archbishop of Florence. 
On the last pillar to the right is an inscription stating that, 
" all the indulgences and privileges in every church, of all 
the religious orders, mendicant or not mendicant, in every 
part of the world, are granted especially to this church, where 
is the body of St. Catherine of Siena." 

* See Gregorovius, Grabmaler der Papste. 

t Author of the " Rationale Divinoium Officioruni" — "A treasure of information 
on all points connected with the decorations and services of the mediaeval church. 
Durandus was born in Provence about 1220, and died in 1290 at Rome." — Lord 
Lindsay. 



488 WALKS IX ROME. 

" vSt. Catherine was one of twenty-five children born in wedlock io 
Jacopo and Lupa Benincasa, citizens of Siena. Her father exercised 
the trade of dyer and fuller. In the year of her birth, 1347, Siena 
reached the climax of its power and splendour. It was then that the 
plague of Bocaccio began lo rage, which swept off 80,000 citizens, and 
interrupted the building of the great Duomo. In the midst of so large 
a family and during these troubled times, Catherine grew almost un- 
noticed, but it was not long before she manifested her peculiar dispos- 
ition. At six years old she already saw visions and longed for a 
monastic life : about the same time she used to collect her childish 
companions together and preach to them. As she grew her wishes 
became stronger ; she refused the proposals which her parents made 
that she should marry, and so vexed them by her obstinacy that they 
imposed on her the most servile duties in their household. These she 
patiently fulfilled, at the same time pursuing her own vocation with 
unwearied ardour. She scarcely slept at all, and ate no food but 
vegetables and a little bread, scourged herself, wore sackcloth, and 
became emaciated, weak, and half delirious. At length the firmness 
of her character and the force of her hallucination won the day. Her 
parents consented to her assuming the Dominican robe, and at the age 
of thirteen she entered the monastic life. From this moment till her 
death we see in her the ecstatic, the philanthropist, and the politician 
combined to a remarkable degree. For three whole years she never 
left her cell except to go to church, maintaining an almost unbroken 
silence. Yet, when slie returned to the world, convinced at length of 
having won by prayer and pain the favour of her Lord, it was to preach 
to infuriated mobs, to toil among men dying of the plague, to execute 
diplomatic negotiations, to harangue the republic of Florence, to corre- 
spond with queens, and to interpose between kings and popes. In the 
midst of this varied and distracting career she continued to see visions, 
and to fast and scourge herself. The domestic virtues and the personal 
wants and wishes of a woman were annihilated in her ; she lived for the 
Church, for the poor, and for Christ, whom she imagined to be con- 
stantly supporting her. At length slie died (at Rome, on the 29th of 
April, 1380, in her 33rd year) worn out by inward conflicts, by the 
tension of a half-delirious ecstasy, by want of food and sleep, and by the 
excitement of political life." — Conihill Mag. Sept. 1866. 

On the right of the high altar is a statue of St John, by 
Obicci, — on the left is the famous statue of Christ, by Michael 
A?igelo. This is one of the sculptures which Francis I. tried 
hard to obtain for Paris. Its effect is marred by the bronze 
drapery. 

Behind, in the choir, are the tombs of two Medici popes. 
On the left is Leo X., Giovanni de Medici (1513 — 21). 
This great pope, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was 
destined to the papacy from his cradle. He was ordained 
at seven years old, was made a cardinal at seventeen, and 
pope at thirty-eight, and at the installation procession to 
the Lateran, rode upon the same white horse, upon which 



STA. MARIA SO PR A MINERVA. 489 

he had fought and had been taken prisoner at the battle of 
Ravenna. His reign was one of fetes and pleasures. He 
was the great patron of artists and poets, and Raphael and 
Ariosto rose into eminence under his protection. His 
tomb is from a design of Antonio di Sangallo, but the figure 
of the pope is by Raffaello da Montelupo. 

Near the foot of Leo X.'s tomb is the flat monumental 
stone of Cardinal Bembo, his friend, and the friend of 
Raphael, who died 1547. His epitaph has been changed. 
The original inscription, half-pagan, half-Christian, ran : 

" Hie Bembus jacet Aonidum laus maxima Phoebi 

Cum sole, et Imia vix periturus honos. 
Hie et fama jaeet, spes, et suprema galeri 

Quam non ulla queat restituisse dies. 
Hie jaeet exemplar vitse omni fraude carentis, 

Summa jacet, summa hie cum pietate fides." 

On the right of the choir is the tomb, by Sangallo, of 
Clement VH., Giuho de Medici (1523 — 34), son of the 
Giulio who fell in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, — who in 
his unhappy reign saw the sack of Rome (1527) under the 
Constable de Bourbon, and the beginning of the separation 
from England under Henry VHI. The figure of the pope 
is by Baccio Bandinelli. Among other graves here is that of 
the English Cardinal Howard, ob. 1694. Just beyond the 
choir is a passage leading to a door into the Via S. Ignazio. 
Immediately on the left is the slab tomb of Era Angelico da 
Fiesole. It is inscribed : 

" Hie jacet Vene Pictor Fl. Jo. de Florentia Ordinis 

prsedicatorum, 1404, 
"Non mihi sit laudi quod eram velut alter Apelles, 
Sed quod lucra tuis omnia, Christe, dabam. 
Altera nam terris opera exstant, altera coelo. 
Urbs me Johannem flos tulit Etruriae."* 

" Fra Angelico was simple and most holy in his manners, — and let 
this serve for a token of his simplicity, that Pope Nicholas one morning 
offering him refreshment, he scrupled to eat flesh without the licence of 
his superior, forgetful for the moment of the dispensing authority of the 
pontiff. He shunned altogether the commerce of the world, and living 
in holiness and in purity, was as loving towards the poor on earth as I 
think his soul must be now in heaven. He worked incessantly at his 
art, nor would he ever paint other than sacred subjects. He might 
have been rich, but cared not to be so, saying that true riches consisted 

* It is no honour to me to be like another Apelles, but rather, O Christ, that T 
gave all my gains to thy poor. One was a work for earth, the other for heaven — a 
city, the flower of Etruria, bare me, John. 



490 WALKS IN ROME. 

rather in being content with little. He might have ruled over many, 
but willed it not, saying there was less trouble and hazard of sin in 
obeying others. Dignity and authority were within his grasp, but he 
disregarded them, affirming that he sought no other advancement than 
to escape hell and draw nigh to Paradise. He was most meek and tem- 
perate, and by a chaste life loosened himself from the snares of the 
world, ofttimes saying that the student of painting hath need of quiet 
and to live without anxiety, and that the dealers in the things of Christ 
ought to live habitually with Christ. Never was he seen in anger with 
the brethren, which appears to me a thing most marvellous, and all but 
incredible; his admonitions to his friends were simple and always 
softened by a smile. Whoever sought to employ him, he answered with 
the utmost coui^tesy, that he would do his part willingly so the prior were 
content. — In sum, this never sufficiently to be lauded father was most 
humble and modest in all his words and deeds, and in his paintings 
graceful and devout ; and the saints which he painted have more of the 
air and aspect of saints than those of any other artist. He was wont 
never to retouch or amend any of his paintings, but left them always as 
they had come from his hand at first, believing, as he said, that such 
was the will of God. Some say that he never took up his pencil with- 
out previous prayer. He never painted a crucifix without tears bathing 
his cheeks ; and throughout his works, in the countenance and attitude 
of all his figures, the correspondent impress of his sincere and exalted 
appreciation of the Christian religion is recognisable. Such was this 
verily Angelic fathei", who spent the whole time of his life in the service 
of God and in doing good to the world and to his neighbour. And 
truly a gift like his could not descend on any but a man of most saintly 
life, for a painter must be holy himself before he can depict holiness." — 
Loj'd Lindsay, from Vasari. 

In the same passage are tombs of Cardinal Alessandrino, 
by Giacomo della Porta ; of Cardinal Pimentel, by Bernini ; 
and of Cardinal Bonelli, by Carlo Rainaldi. 

Beyond this, in the left transept, is the Chapel of S< 
Domenico, with eight black columns, appropriate to the 
colour of the Order, and an interesting picture of the saint. 
Here is the tomb of Benedict XIII., Vincenzo-Maria Orsini 
(1724 — 30), by Pietro Bracci. This pope, who had been a 
Dominican monk, laboured hard in his short reign for the 
reformation of the Church, and the morals of the clergy. 

Over a door leading to the Sacristy are frescoes represent- 
ing the election of Eugenius IV. in 1431, and of Nicholas 
V. in 1447, which both took place in this church. The altar 
of the sacristy has a Crucifixion, by Andrea Sacchi^ 

Returning down the left aisle, the second chapel, counting 
from this end, is that of the Lante family, which contains 
the fine tomb of the Duchess Lante, ob. 1840, by Tcnera7ii, 
with the Angel of the Resurrection, a sublime upward- 



STA. MARIA SOPRA MINERVA. 491 

gazing figure seated upon tie sarcophagus. Here is a 
picture of St. James, by Baroccio. 

The third chapel is that of S. Vincenzo Ferreri, apostle of 
the Order of Preachers, with a miracle-working picture, by 
Bernardo Castelli. The fourth chapel — of the Grazioli 
family — has on the right a statue of St. Sebastian, by Mbio 
da Fiesok, and over the altar a lovely head of our Saviour, by 
Periigino. This chapel was purchased by the Grazioli from 
the old family of Maffei, of which there are some fine tombs. 
The fifth chapel — of the Patrizi family — contains the famous 
miraculous picture called " La Madonna Consolatrice degli 
afiflitti," in honour of which Pope Gregory XVI. conceded so 
many indulgences, as we read by the inscription. 

"La santita di N. S. Gregorio Papa XVI. con breve in data 17 
Sept. 1836. Ho accordato I'indulgenzia plenaria a chiunque confessato 
e communicato visitera divotamente qiiesta santa imagine della B. Ver- 
gine sotto il titolo di consolatrice degli afflitti nella seconda dominica 
di Luglio e suo ottavo di ciascun anno : concede altresi la parziale 
indulgenza di 200 giorni in qualunque giorno dell' anno a chiunque 
almeno contrito visitera la detta S. Immagine : le dette indulgenze 
poi sono pure applicabili alle benedette anime del purgatorio." 

The last chapel, belonging to a Spanish nobleman, con- 
tains the picture of the Crucifixion, which is said to have 
conversed with Sta. Rosa di Lima. 

Near the entrance is the tomb of Cardinal Giacomo 
Tebaldi, ob. 1466, and beneath it that of Francesco Torna- 
buoni, by Mino da Fiesole. It was for the tomb of the wife 
of this Tornabuoni, who died in childbirth, that the wonder- 
ful relief of Verocchio, now in the Ufiizi at Florence, was 
executed. In the pavement is the gravestone of Paulus 
Manutius, the printer, son of the famous Aldus Manutius of 
Venice, with the inscription, " Paulo Manutio Aldi Filio. 
Obiit CI3I3LXXIV." 

The great Dominican Convent of the Minerva is the resid- 
ence of the General of the Order. It contains the Biblio- 
theca Casanatensis (so called from its founder. Cardinal 
Casanata), the largest library in Rome after that of the 
Vatican, comprising 120,000 printed volumes and 4500 
MSS. It is open from 8 to 11 a.m., and i^ to 3I p.m. 
This convent has always been connected with the history 
of the Inquisition. Here, on June 22, 1633, Galileo was 
tried before its tribunal for the " heresy " of saying that the 
earth went round the sun, instead of the sun round the 



40^ WALKS IN ROME. 

earth, and was forced to recant upon his knees, this 
" accursed, heretical, and detestable doctrine." As he rose 
from his humiliation, he is said to have consoled himself by 
adding, in an undertone, " E pur si muove." When the 
''Palace of the Holy Office" was stormed by the mob 
in the revolution of 1848, it was feared that the Dominican 
convent would have been burnt down. 

The very beautiful cloister of the convent, which has a 
vaulted roof richly painted in arabesques, contains grand 
fifteenth century tombs, — of Cardinal Tiraso, ob. 1502, and 
of Cardinal Astorgius, ob. 1503. S. Antonino, archbishop 
of Florence, who lived in the reigns of Eugenius IV. nnd 
Nicholas V., was prior of this convent. 

From the Minerva, the Via del Pit di Marjno, so called 
from a gigantic marble foot which stands on one side of it, 
leads to the Corso.* 



CHAPTER XV. 
THE BORGO AND ST. PETER'S. 

Via Tordinona — S. Salvatore in Lauro — House of Raphael — S. Gio- 
vanni de' Fiorentini — Bridge and Castle of S. Angelo — Sta. Maria 
Traspontina — Palazzo Giraud — Piazza Scossa-Cavalli — Hospital of 
Santo Spirito — Piazza and Obelisk of the Vatican — S. Peter's j 
its portico, tombs, crypts, dome, and sacristy — Churches of wS. 
Stefano and Sta. Marta — II Cimeterio dei Tedeschi — Palazzo del 
Santo-Uffizio — S. Salvatore in Torrione — S. IVlichaele in Sassia. 

CONTINUING in a direct course from the Piazza Bor- 
ghese, we pass through a series of narrow dirty streets quite 
devoid of interest, but bordering on one side upon the 
Tiber, of which — with its bridge, S. Angelo and St. Peter's 
■ — beautiful views may be obtained from little courts and 
narrow strips of shore, at the back of the houses. 

A short distance after passing (on left) the Locanda 
deir Orso, beneath which are some curious vaulted 
chambers of c. a.d. 1500, the street, which repeatedly 

* That part of the ancient Campus Martins which contains the Theatre of Marcellus 
and Portico of Octavia, is described in Chapter V. ; that which belongs to the Via 
Flaminia in Chapter II. 



S. S ALVA TORE IX LAUKO. 493 

changes its name, is called Via Tordinona, from the Tor 
di Nona, which once stood here, but was destroyed in 
1690. It was used as a prison, as is shown by the verse of 
Regnier : 

" Qu'mi barisel vous mit dedans la tour de Nonne." 

(One of the narrow streets on the left of the Via Tordi- 
nona debouches into the Via dei Coronari, close to the 
Chu7'ch of S. Salvatore in Lauro, built on the site of a 
laurel-grove, which flourished near the portico of Europa. 
It contains a picture of the Nativity, by Fietro da Cortona, 
and a modern work of Gagliardi, representing S. Emidio, 
S. Nicolo da Tolentino, and S. Giacomo della Marina, the 
three protectors of Ancona. In a side chapel, opening out 
of the cloisters, is the rich tomb of Pope Eugenius IV. 
(Gabriele Condolmieri, ob. 1439), with his recumbent figure 
by Isaia da Pisa. Francesco Salviati painted a portrait of 
this pope for the adjoining convent, to which he had 
belonged, as well as a fine fresco of the Marriage of Cana.* 

(There are several other line monuments in the same 
chapel with the tomb, which in 1867 was given up as a 
barrack to the Flemish zouaves, at the great risk of injury 
to its delicate carvings.) 

Passing the Apollo Theatre, the Via Tordinona emerges 
upon the quay of the Tiber, opposite S. Angelo. Hence 
several streets diverge into the heart of the city. 

(At the corner of the Via di Banchi is a house with a 
friezre, richly sculptured with lions' heads, &c. On the left 
is the Church of San Celso in Banchi, in front of which 
Lorenzo Colonna, the protonotary, was murdered by the 
Orsini and Santa Croce, immediately after the death of 
Sixtus IV. (1484); and where his mother, finding his head 
cut off, and seizing it by the hair, shrieked forth her curses 
upon his enemies. On tlie right, further down the street, 
is the Chicrch of Sta. Caterina da Siena, which contains an 
interesting altar-piece by Girolamo Genga, representing the 
return of Gregory XI. from Avignon, which was due to her 
influence.) 

The house joining the Ponte S. Angelo is said to have 
been that of the " Violinista," the friend of Raphael, who is 
familiar to us from his portrait in the Sciarra Palace . Some 

* Vasari, v. 



494 WALKS IN ROME. 

say that Raphael died while he was on a visit to him. But 
the best authorities maintain that he died in a house built 
for him by Bramante, in the Piazza Rusticucci, which was 
pulled down to enlarge the Piazza of St. Peter's. No. 124, 
Via Coronari, not far from the Ponte S. Angelo, is shown 
as the house in which the great painter lived previously to 
this, and is that which he bequeathed to the chapel in the 
Pantheon in which he is buried. It was partly rebuilt in 
1705, when Carlo Maderno painted on its fa9ade a por- 
trait of Raphael in chiaroscuro, now almost obliterated. 
The house at present belongs to the canons of Sta. Maria 
Maggiore. 

(The Via S. Giovanni de' Fiorentifii leads to the Church 
of that name, abutting picturesquely into the angle of the 
Tiber. This is the national church of the Tuscans, and 
was built at the expense of the city of Florence. In the 
tribune are tombs of the Falconieri family. Here are 
several fine pictures ; a St. Jerome writing, by Cigoii, who 
is buried in this church ; St. Jerome praying before a cru- 
cifix, Tito Sanfi'^ (i^;^S — 1603); St. Francis, Tifo Santi ; SS. 
Cosmo and Damian condemned to martyrdom by fire, — a 
grand work of Salvator Rosa. 

"Some of Uie altar-pieces of Salvator-Rosa (1615 — 1673), are well 
conceived and full of effect, especially when they represent a horrible 
subject, like the martyrdom in S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini." — Lauzi, 
ii. 165. 

The Chapel of the Crucifix is painted by Lanfranco : 
the third chapel on the right has frescoes by Tempesta on 
the roof, relating to the history of S. Lorenzo. 

The building of this church was begun in the reign of 
Leo X. by San^ovino, who, for want of space, laid its 
foundations, at enormous expense, in the bed of the Tiber. 
While overlooking this, he fell from a scaffold, and being 
dangerously hurt, was obliged to give up his place to 
Antonio da Sangallo.* Soon after Pope Leo died, and the 
work, with many others, was suspended during the reign of 
Adrian VI. Under Clement VII. Sansovino returned, but 
was driven away, robbed of all his possessions in the sack 
of Rome, under the Constable de Bourbon. The church 
was finished by Giacomo della Porta in 1588, but Alessandro 
Galileo added the facade in 1725. 

* A scholar of Bronzino. f See Vasar!, vol, vii. 



PONTE S. ANGELO. ^95 

" En 1488, uiie affreuse epidemie decimait les malheureux habitants 
des environs de Rome ; les mourants etaient abandonnes, les cadavres 
restaient sans sepulture. Aussitot quelques Florentins fornient une con- 
frerie sous Ic titre de la Pitie, pour rendre aux pestiferes les derniers 
devoirs de la charite chretienne : c'est a cette confrerie qu'on doit la 
belle eglise de Saint-Jean des Florentins, a Strada Giulia." — Gournerie, 
Rome Ch7-etie7ine. 

The Ponte S. Angela is the Pons Elius of Hadrian, built 
as an approach to his mausoleum, and only intended for 
this, as another public bridge existed close by, at the 
time of its construction. It is almost entirely ancient, 
except the parapets. The statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
at the extremity, were erected by Clement VII., in the 
place of two chapels, in 1530, and the angels, by Clement 
IX., in 1688. The pedestal of the third angel on the 
right is a relic of the siege of Rome in 1849, and bears the 
impress of a cannon-ball. 

These angels, which have been called the "breezy 
maniacs " of Bernini, are only from his designs. The two 
angels which he executed himself, and intended for this 
bridge, are now at S. Andrea delle Fratte. The idea of 
Clement IX. was a fine one, that " an avenue of the 
heavenly host should be assembled to welcome the pilgrim 
to the shrine of the great apostle." 

Dante saw the bridge of S. Angelo divided lengthways 
by barriers to facilitate the movement of the crowds going 
to and from St. Peter's on the occasion of the first jubilee, 
1300. 

" Come i Romani per I'esercito molto, 
L'anno del giubbileo, su per lo ponte 
Hanno a passar la gente modo tolto ; 

Che dair un lato tutti hanno la fronte 
Verso '1 castello, e vanno a Santo Pietro, 
Dair altra sponda vanno verso '1 monte." 

Inferno, xviii. 29. 

From the Ponte S. Angelo, when the Tiber is low, are 
visible the remains of the bridge by which the ancient Via 
Triiimphalis crossed the river. Close by, where Santo 
Spirito now stands, was the Porta Triumphalis, by which 
victors entered the city in triumph. 

Facing the bridge, is the famous Castle of S. Angelo, 
built by the Emperor Hadrian as his family tomb, because 
the last niche in the imperial mausoleum of Augustus was 
filled when the ashes of Nerva were laid there. The first 



'^ 



/i96 WALKS IN ROME. 

fu\ieral here was that of Elius Verus, the first adopted son 
of Hadrian, who died before him. The emperor himself 
died at Baise, but his remains were transported hither from a 
temporary tomb at Pozzuoh by his successor Antoninus 
Pius, by whom the mausoleum was completed in a.d. 140. 
Here, also, were buried, Antoninus Pius, a.d. 161 ; Marcus 
Aurelius, 180 ; Commodus, 192 ; and Septimius Severus, in 
an urn of gold, enclosed in one of alabaster, a.d. 211; Cara- 
calla, in 217, was the last emperor interred here. The well- 
known lines of Byron : 

" Turn to the mole which Hadrian rear'd on high, 
Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles, 
Colossal copyist of deformity, 
Whose travell'd phantasy from the far Nile's 
Enormous model, doom'd the artist's toils 
To build for giants, and for his vain earth, 
His shrunken ashes, raise this dome ! How smiles 
The gazer's eye with philosophic mirth. 
To view the huge design which sprung from such a birth." 

seem rather applicable to the Pyramid of Caius Cestius 
than to this mausoleum. 

The castle, as it now appears, is but the skeleton of 
the magnificent tomb of the emperors. Procopius, writing 
in the sixth century, describes its appearance in his 
time. " It is built," he says, " of Parian marble ; the 
square blocks fit closely to each other without any 
cement. It has four equal sides, each a stone's throw in 
length. In height it rises above the walls of the city. 
On the summit are statues of men and horses, of admirable 
workmanship, in Parian marble." Canina, in his " Archi- 
tectura Romana," gives a restoration of the mausoleum, 
which shows how it consisted of three stories : i, a quad- 
rangular basement, the upper part 'intersected with Doric 
pillars, between which were spaces for epitaphs of the dead 
within, and surmounted at the corners by marble equestrian 
statues ; 2, a circular story, with fluted Ionic colonnades : 
3, circular story, surrounded by Corinthian columns, between 
which were statues. The whole was surmounted by a 
pyramidal roof, ending in a bronze fir-cone. 

j» *'The mausoleum which Hadrian erected for himself on the further 

^ bank of the Tiber far outshone the tomb of Augustus, which it nearly 

^ confronted. Of the size and dignity wliich chai-acterized this work of 

Egyptian massivencss, we may gain a conception from the existing re- 



CASTLE OF S. ANGELO, 497 

mains ; but it requires an effort of imagination to transform the scarred 
and shapeless bulk before us, into the graceful pile which rose column 
upon column, surmounted by a gilded dome of span almost unrivalled." 
Merivale, ch. Ixvi. 

The history of the Mausoleum, in the middle ages, is 
almost the history of Rome. It was probably first turned 
into a fortress by Honorius, a.d. 423. From Theodoric it 
derives the name of " Career Theodorici." In 537, it was 
besieged by Vitiges, when the defending garrison, reduced to 
the last extremity, hurled down all the magnificent statues 
Avhich decorated the cornice, upon the besiegers. In a.d. 
498 Pope Symmachus removed the bronze fir-cone at the 
apex of the roof to the court of St. Peter's, whence it was 
afterwards transferred to the Vatican garden, where it is 
still to be seen between two bronze peacocks, which pro- 
bably stood on either side of the entrance. 

Belisarius defended the castle against Totila, whose Gothic 
troops captured and held it for three years, after which it 
was taken by Narses. 

It was in 530 that the event occurred which gave the 
building its present name. Pope Gregory the Great was 
leading a penitential procession to St. Peter's, in order to 
offer up prayers for the staying of the great pestilence which 
followed the inundation of 589 ; when, as he was crossing 
the bridge, even while the people were falling dead around 
him, he looked up at the mausoleum, and saw an angel on 
its summit, sheathing a bloody sword, "^ while a choir of 
angels around chaunted with celestial voices, the anthem, 
since adopted by the Church in her vesper service — " Eegina 
coeli, Icetare — quia quein meruisti portare — resurrexif, sicut 
dixit, Allehija " — To which the earthly voice of the pope 
solemnly responded, ^'' Pra pro nobis Detmi, AUelujay\ 

* It is interesting to observe that the same vision was seen under the same circum- 
stances in other periods of history. 

" So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thov.sand 
men. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it ... . and David lifted 
up his eyes, and saw the angel. of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, 
having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem." — i Chron. xxi. 
14-16. 

" Before the plague of London had begun (otherwise than in St. Giles'.s\ seeing a 
crowd of people in the street, I joined them to satisfy my curiosity, and found them 
all staring up into the air, to see what a woman told them appeared plain to her. 
This was an angel clothed in white, with a fiery sword in his hand, waving it, or 
brandishing it over his head : she described every part of the figure to the life, and 
showed them the motion and the form." — Defoe, Hisi. of the Plague. 

t The pictures at Ara Coeli and Sta. Maria Maggiore both claim to be that carried 
by St. Gregory in this processiou. The song of the angels is annually commemo- 



498 WALKS IN ROME. 

In the tenth century the fortress was occupied by the 
infamous Marozia, who, in turn, brought her three husbands 
(Alberic, Count of Tusculum ; Guido, Marquis of Tuscany ; 
and Hugo, King of Italy) thither, to tyrannise with her over 
Rome. It was within the walls of this building that Alberic, 
her son by her first husband, waiting upon his royal stepfather 
at table, threw a bowl of water over him, when Hugo retorted 
by a blow, which was the signal for an insurrection, the 
people taking part with Alberic, putting the king to flight, 
and imprisoning Marozia. Shut up within these walls. Pope 
John XI. (931 — 936), son of Marozia by her first husband, 
ruled under the guidance of his stronger-minded brother 
Alberic ; here, also, Octavian, son of Alberic, and grandson 
of Marozia, succeeded in forcing his election as John XII. 
(being the first pope who took a new name), and scandalised 
Christendom by a life of murder, robbery, adultery, and 
incest. 

In 974 the castle was seized by Cencio (Crescenzio No- 
mentano), the consul, who raised up an anti-pope (Boniface 
VII.) here, with the determination of destroying the temporal 
power of the popes, and imprisoned and murdered two 
popes, Benedict VI. (972), and John XIV. (984), within 
these walls. In 996 another lawful pope, Gregory V., 
calling in the emperor Otho to his assistance, took the 
castle, and beheaded Cencio, though he had promised him 
life if he would surrender. From this governor the fortress 
long held the name of Castello de Crescenzio, or Turris 
Crescentii, by which it is described in mediaeval writings. 
A second Cencio supported another anti-pope, Cadolaus, 
here in 1063, against Pope Alexander II. A third Cencio 
imprisoned Gregory VII. here in 1084. From this time 
the possession of the castle was a constant point of contest 
between popes and anti-popes. In 13 13 Arlotto degli 
Stefaneschi, having demolished most of the other towers 
in the city, arranged the same fate for S. Angelo, but it was 
saved by cession to the Orsini. It was from hence, on 
December 15, 1347, that Rienzi fled to Bohemia, at the 
end of his first period of power, his wife having previously 
made her escape disguised as a friar. 

rated on St. Mark's Day, when the clergy pass by in procession to St. Peter's, and the 
Franciscans of Ara Cceli and the canons of Sta. Maria Maggiore, halting here, chauiU 
the antiphon, Regitta cccli, leetare. 



CASTLE OF S. ANGELO. 499 

" The cause of final ruin to this monument " is described 
by Nibby to have been the resentment of the citizens against 
a French governor who espoused the cause of the anti-pope 
(Clement VII.) against Urban VI. in 1378. It was then 
that the marble casings were all torn from the walls and 
used as street pavements. 

A drawing of Sangallo of 1465 shows the " upper part of 
the fortress crowned with high square towers and turreted 
buildings ; a cincture of bastions and massive square towers 
girding the whole ; two square-built bulwarks flanking the 
extremity of the bridge, which was then so connected with 
these outworks that passengers would have immediately found 
themselves inside the fortress after crossing the river. Mar- 
lianus, 1588, describes its double cincture of fortifications — a 
large round tower at the inner extremity of the bridge ; two 
towers with high pinnacles, and the cross on their summits, 
the river flowing all around." * 

The castle began to assume its present aspect under 
Boniface IX. in 1395. John XXIII., 141 1, commenced 
the covered way to the Vatican, which was finished by 
Alexander VI. ; and roofed by Urban VIII., in 1630. By 
the last-named pope the great outworks of the fortress were 
built under Bernini, and furnished with cannon made from 
the bronze roof of the Pantheon. Under Paul III. the 
interior was decorated with frescoes, and a colossal marble 
angel erected on the summit, in the place of a chapel (S. 
Angelo inter Nubes), built by Boniface IV. The marble 
angel was exchanged by Benedict XIV. for the existing 
angel of bronze, by a Dutch artist, Verschafifelt. 

'* Paul III. voulant justifier lenom donne a cette forteresse, fit placer 
au sommet de 1' edifice une statue de marbre, representant un ange 
tenant a la main une epee nue. Cet ouvrage de Raphael de Montelupo 
a ete remplace, du temps de Benoit XIV., par une statue de bronze qui 
fournit cette belle reponse a un officier fran9ais assiege dans le fort, 
' Je me rendrai quand I'ange remettra son epee dans le fourreau.' 

'*.,.. Cet ange a I'air naif d'une jeune fille de dix-huitans, 
et ne cherche qu'a bien remettre son epee dans le fourreau." — Stendhal, 

i- 33- 

** I suppose no one ever looked at this statue critically — at least, for 
myself, I never could ; nor can I remember now whether, as a work of 
art, it is above or below criticism ; perhaps both. With its vast wings, 
poised in air, as seen against the deep blue skies of Rome, or lighted up 

• Hemans* Story of Monuments in Rome. 



500 WALKS IX ROME. 

by the golden sunset, to me it Avas ever like what it was intended to re- 
present — like a vision." — Jamesons Sacred Art, p, 98. 

Of the castle, as we now see it externally, only the quad- 
rangular basement is of the time of Hadrian ; the round 
tower is of that of Urban VIIL, its top added by Paul III. 
The four round towers of the outworks, called after the four 
Evangehsts, are of Nicholas V., 1447. 

The interior of the fortress can be visited by an order. 
Excavations made in 1825 have laid open the sepulchral 
chamber in the midst of the basement. Here stood, 
in the centre, the porphyry sarcophagus of Hadrian, 
which was stolen by Pope Innocent II. to be used as 
his own tomb in the Lateran, where it was destroyed by 
the fire of 1360, the cover alone escaping, which was 
used for the tomb of Otho II., in the atrium of St. 
Peter's, and which, after filling this office for seven centu- 
ries, is now the baptismal font of that basilica. A spiral 
passage, thirty feet high, and eleven wide, up which a 
chariot could be driven, gradually ascends through the solid 
mass of masonry. There is wonderfully little to be seen. 
A saloon of the time of Paul III. is adorned with frescoes 
of the life of Alexander the Great, by Pieriiw del Vaga. 
This room would be used by the pope in case of his having 
to take refuge in S. Angelo. An adjoining room, adorned 
with a stucco frieze of Tritons and Nereids, is that in which 
Cardinal Carafia was strangled (1561) under Pius IV., for 
alleged abuses of authority under his uncle, Paul IV. — his 
brotlier, the Marquis Carafia, being beheaded in the castle 
the same night. The reputed prison of Beatrice Cenci is 
shown, but it is very uncertain that she was ever confined 
here, — also the prison of Cagliostro, and that of Benvenuto 
Cellini, who escaped, and broke his leg in trying toletliimself 
down by a rope from the ramparts. The statue of the angel 
by Montebipo is to be seen stowed away in a dark corner. 
Several horrible trabocchette (oubliettes) are shown. 

On the roof, from which there is a beautiful view, are 
many modern prisons, where prisoners sufi'er terribly from 
the summer sun beating upon their fiat roofs. 

Among the sculptures found here were the Barberini 
Faun, now at Municli, the Dancing Faun, at Fierence, and 
the Bust of Hadrian at the Vatican. The sepulchral in- 
scriptions of the Antonines existed till 1572, when they 



THE BORGO. 501 

were cut up by Gregory XIII. (Buoncompagni), and the 
marble used to decorate a chapel in St. Peter's ! The mag- 
nificent Easter display of fireworks (firom an idea of Michael 
Angelo, carried out by Bernini), called the girandola, used to 
be exhibited here, but now takes place at S. Pietro in Mon- 
torio, or from the Pincio. From 1849 to 1870, the castle 
was occupied by French troops, and their banner floated 
here, except on great festivals, when it was exchanged for 
that of the pope. 

Running behind, and crossing the back streets of the 
Borgo, is the covered passage intended for the escape of 
the popes to the castle. It was used by Alexander VI. when 
invaded by Charles VIII. in 1494, and twice by Clement VII. 
(Giulio di Medici), who fled, in 1527, from Moncada, viceroy 
of Naples, and in May, 1527, during the terrible sack of 
Rome by the troops of the Constable de Bourbon. 

** Pendant que Ton se battait, Clement VII. etait en prieres devant 
I'autel de sa chapelle au Vatican, detail singulier chez un homme qui 
avait commence sa carriere par etre militaire. Lorsque les cris des 
mourants lui annoncerent la prise de la ville, il s'enfuit du Vatican au 
chateau St. Ange par le long corridor qui s'eleve au-dessus des plus 
hautes maisons. L'historien Paul-Jove, qui suivait Clement VII., 
relevait sa longue robe pour qu'il put marcher plus vite, et lorsque le 
pape fut arrive au pont qui le laissait a decouvert pour un instant, 
Paul-Jove le couvrit de son manteau et de son chapeau violet, de peur 
qu'il ne fut reconnu a son rochet blanc et ajuste par quelque soldat bon 
tireur. 

*' Pendant cette longue fuite le long du corridor, Clement VII. 
apercevait au-dessous de lui, par les petites fenetres, ses sujets poursuivis 
par les soldats vainqueurs qui deja se repandaient dans les rues. lis ne 
faisaient aucun quartier a personne, et tuaient a coups de pique tout ce 
qu'ils pouvaient atteindre." — Stendhal^ i. 388. 

" The Escape " consists of two passages ; the upper open 
like a loggia, the lower covered, and only lighted by loop- 
holes. The keys of both are kept by the pope himself, 

S. Angelo is at the entrance of the Borgo, promised at the 
Italian invasion of September, 1870, as the sanctuary of the 
papacy, the tiny sovereignty where the temporal sway of the 
popes should remain undisturbed, — the sole relic left to them 
of all their ancient dominions. The Borgo, or Leo?ime City, 
is surrounded by walls of its own, which were begun in a.d. 
846, by Pope Leo IV., for the better defence of St. Peter's 
from the Saracens, who had been carrying their devastations 
up to the very walls of Rome. These walls, 10,800 feet in 



502 WALKS IN ROME. 

circumference, were completed in four years by labourers 
summoned from every town and monastery of the Roman 
states. Pope Leo himself daily encouraged their exertions 
by his presence. In 852 the walls were solemnly conse- 
crated by a vast procession of the whole Roman clergy 
barefooted, their heads strewn with ashes, who sprinkled 
them with holy water, while the pope offered a prayer 
composed by himself,* at each of the three gates. 

The adjoining Piazza Pia is decorated with a fountain 
erected by Pius IX. The principal of the streets which meet 
here is the Via del Borgo Nuovo, the main artery to St. 
Peter's. On its left is the Church of Sta. Maria Traspon- 
tina^ built 1566, containing two columns which bear inscrip- 
tions, stating that they were those to which St. Peter and 
St. Paul were respectively attached, when they suffered 
flagellation by order of Nero ! 

This church occupies the si^^ of a Pyramid supposed to 
have been erected to Scipio Af^-' *anus, who died at Liternum, 
B.C. 183, and which was regarded in the middle ages as the 
tomb of Romulus. Its sides were once coated with marble, 
which was stripped off by Donus I. This pyramid is 
represented on the bronze doors of St. Peter's. 

A little further is the Palazzo Giraud, belonging to Prince 
Torlonia. It was built, 1506, by Bramante, for Cardinal 
Adriano da Corneto,t who gave it to Henry VIII., by whom 
it was given to Cardinal Campeggio. Thus it was for a 
short time the residence of the English ambassador before 
the Reformation. Innocent XII. converted it into a college 
for priests, by whom it was sold to the Marquis Giraud. 

Facing this palace is the Piazza Scossa Cavalii, with a 
pretty fountain. Its name bears witness to a curious 
legend, which tells how when St. Helena returned from 
Palestine, bringing with her the stone on which Abra- 
ham was about to sacrifice Isaac, and that on which the 
Virgin Mary sate down at the time of the presentation of 
the Saviour in the Temple, the horses drawing these precious 
relics stood still at this spot, and refused every effort to 

* " Deus, qui apostolo tuo Petro coUatis clavibus regni celestis ligandi et solvendi 
pontificium tradidisti ; concede ut intercessionis ejus auxilio, a peccatorum nostrorutn 
legibus libcrcmur : et hauc civitatem, quam te adjuvante fuiidaviinus, fac ab ira tua 
in perpetuum pennanere securam, et de hostibus, quorutn causa constnicta est, novos 
et miiitiplicatos habere triuniphos, per Dominum nostrum, " &c. 

t The same whom Alexander VI. had intended to poison, when he poisoned himself 
instead. 



HOSPITAL OF SANTO SPIRITO. 503 

make them move. Then Christian people, " recognising the 
finger of God," erected a church on this spot (S. Giacomo 
Scossa Cavalh), where the stones are still to be seen. 

The Strada del Borgo Sto. Spirito contains the immense 
Hospital of Santo Spirito^ running along the bank of the 
Tiber. This establishment was founded in 11 98 by Inno- 
cent III. Sixtus IV., in 1471, ordered it to be rebuilt by 
Bacio Pintelli, who added a hall 376 feet long by 44 high 
and 37 wide. Under Benedict XIV., Ferdinando Fuga built 
another great hall. The altar in the midst of the great hall 
is the only work of Andrea Palladio in Rome. The church 
was designed by Bacio Pintelli, but built by Antonio di San 
Gallo under Paul III. Under Gregory XIII., Ottaviano 
Mascherino built the palace of the governor, which unites 
the hospital with the church. 

The institution comprises a hospital for every kind of 
disease, containing in ordinary times 1620 beds, a number 
which can be almost doubled in time of necessity ; a lunatic 
asylum containing an average of 450 inmates ; and a 
foundling hospital, where children are received from all 
parts of the papal states, and even from the Neapolitan 
towns. Upwards of 3000 foundlings pass through the 
hospital annually, but the mortality is very great, — in the 
return of 1846, as much as fifty-seven per cent. The person 
who wishes to deposit an infant rings a bell, when a little 
bed is turned towards the grille near the door, in which the 
baby is deposited. Close to this is another grille, without 
any apparent use. " What is that for ? " you ask. " Be- 
cause, when nurses come m from the country, they might 
be tempted to take the children for money, and yet not 
feel any natural tenderness towards them, but by looking 
through the second grille, they can see the child, and 
discover if it is simpafico, and if not, they can go away and 
leave it." 

At the end of the street one enters the Piazza Rusticucci 
(where Raphael died), from which open the magnificent 
colonnades of Bernini, which lead the eye up to the facade 
of St. Peter's, while the middle distance is broken by the 
silvery spray of its glittering fountains. 

The Colo7mades have 284 columns, are sixty-one feet wide, 
and sixty-four, high ; they enclose an area of 777 English 
feet; they were built by Bernini for Alexander VIL, 1657 — - 



:d4 walks in ROME. 

67. In the centre is the famous red granite Obelisk of the 
Vatican., brought to Rome from HeliopoHs by Caligula, in 
a ship which Pliny describes as being "nearly as long as 
the left side of the port of Ostia." It was used to adorn 
the circus of Nero, and was brought from a position near 
the present sacristy of St Peter's by Sixtus V. in 15S6. 
Here it was elevated by Domenico Fontana, who estimated 
its weight at 963,537 Roman pounds; and employed 800 
men, 150 horses, and 46 cranes in its removal. 

The obelisk was first exorcised as a pagan idol, and then 
dedicated to the Cross. Its removal was preceded by high 
mass in St. Peter's, after which Pope Sixtus bestowed a 
solemn benediction upon Fontana and his workmen, and 
ordained that none should speak, upon pain of death, 
during the raising of the obelisk. The immense mass was 
slowly rising upon its base, when suddenly it ceased to 
move, and it was evident that the ropes were giving way. 
An awful moment of suspense ensued, when the breath- 
less silence was broken by a cry of " Acqua alle funi ! " — 
throw water on the ropes., and the workmen, acting on the 
advice so unexpectedly received, again saw the monster 
move, and gradually settle on its base. The man who 
saved the obelisk was Bresca, a sailor of Bordighiera, a 
village of the Riviera di Ponente, and Sixtus V., in his 
gratitude, promised him that his native village should ever 
henceforth have the privilege of furnishing the Easter palms 
to St. Peter's. A vessel laden with palm-branches, which 
abound in Bordighiera, is still annually sent to the Tiber in 
the week before Palm Sunday, and the palms, after being 
prepared and plaited by the nuns of S. Antonio Abbate, 
are used in the ceremonial in St. Peter's. 

The height of the whole obelisk is 132 feet, that of the 
shaft, eighty-three feet. Upon the shaft is the inscription 
to Augustus and Tiberius : " divo. ctes. divi. julii. f. 

AUGUSTO. — TI. C^SARI. DIVI. AUG. F. AUGUSTA, SACRUM." 

The inscriptions on the base show its modern dedication to 
the Cross * — " Ecce Crux Domini — Fugite partes adversse — 
Vicit Leo de tribu Juda." 

*' Sixte-quint s'applaudissait du succes, comme de Toeuvre la plus 

* At the time of its erection Sixtus V. conceded an indulgence of ten years to all 
vvtio, ])nssing l)encath tlic obelisk, should adore the cross on its summit, repeating a 
D.itcr-noster. 



OBELISK OF ST. PETER'S. 505 

gigantesque des temps modernes ; des medailles furent frappees ; Fon- 
tana fut cree noble remain, chevalier de I'fiperon d'or, et re9ut una 
gratification de 5,000 ecus, independamment des mat^riaux qui avaient 
servi a I'entrepi-ise, et dont la valeur s'elevait a 20,000 ecus (108,000 
fr. ) ; enfin des poemes, dans toutes les langues, sur ce nouveau triomphe 
de la croix, furent adresses aux diflferents souverains de I'Europe." — • 
Goiirnerie, Nome Chretienne^ ii. 232. 

" In summer the great square basks in unalluring magnificence in the 
midday sun. Its tall obelisk sends but a slim shadow to travel round 
the oval plane, like the gnomon of a huge dial ; its fountains murmur 
with a delicious dreaminess, sending up massive jets like blocks of crystal 
into the hot sunshine, and receiving back a broken spray, on which sits 
serene an unbroken iris, but present no ' cool grot,' where one may enjoy 
their freshness ; and in spite of the shorter path, the pilgrim looks with 
dismay at the dazzling pavement and long flight of unsheltered steps 
between him and the church, and prudently plunges into the forest of 
columns at either side of the piazza, and threads his way through their 
uniting shadows, intended, as an inscription* tells him, for this express 
purpose. " — Cardinal Wiseman. 

" Un jour Pie V. traversait, avec I'ambassadeur de Pologne, cette 
place du Vatican. Pris d'enthousiasme au souvenir du courage des 
martyrs qui I'ont arrosee de leurs larmes, et fertilisee par leur sang, il se 
baisse, et saisissant dans sa main une poignee de poussiere : 'Tenez,' 
dit-il au representant de cette noble nation, ' prenez cette poussiere 
formee de la cendre des saints, et impregnee du sang des martyrs.' 

" L'ambassadeur ne portait pas dans son cceur la foi d'un pape, ni 
dans son ame les illuminations d'un saint ; il re9ut pourtant avec respect 
cette relique etrange a ses yeux: mais revenu en son palais, retirant, 
d'une main indifferente peut-etre, le linge qui la contenait, il le trouva 
ensanglante. 

" La poussiere avait disparn. La foi du pontife avait evoque le sang 
des martyrs, et ce sang genereux reparaissait a cet appel pour attester, 
en face de I'heresie, que I'Eglise romaine, au xvi*^ siecle, etait toujours 
celle pour laquelle ces heros avaient donne leur vie sous Neron." — U^ie 
Chretiaine a Rome. 

■ No one can look upon the Piazza of St. Peter's without 
associating it with the great rehgious ceremonies with 
which it is connected, especially that of the Easter Bene- 
diction. 

** Out over the great balcony stretches a white awning, where priests 
and attendants are collected, and where the pope will soon be seen. 
Below, the piazza is alive with moving masses. In the centre are drawn 
up long lines of soldiery, with yellow and red pompons, and glittering 
helmets and bayonets. These are surrounded by crowds on fo'-t, and 
at the outer rim are packed carnages filled and overrun with people, 
mounted on the seats and boxes. What a sight it is ! — above us the 
great dome of St. Peter's, and below, the grand embracing colonnade, 
and the vast space, in the centre of which rises the solemn obelisk 

* The inscription is from Isaiah iv. 6, "A tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime 
from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain." 



5o6 IVALKS ly ROME. 

thronged Avith masses of living beings. Peasants from the Campagna 
and the mountains are moving about everywhere. Pilgrims in oil-cloth 
cape and with iron staff demand charity. On the steps are rows of 
purple, blue, and brown umbrellas, for there the sun blazes fiercely. 
Everywhere crop forth the white hoods of Sisters of Charity, collected 
in groups, and showing, among the parti-coloured dresses, like beds of 
chiysanthemums in a garden. One side of the massive colonnade casts 
a grateful shadoAv over the crowd beneath, that fill up the inten-als of its 
columns ; but elsewhere the sun bums down and flashes everywhere. 
Mounted on the colonnade are crowds of people leaning over, beside the 
colossal statues. Through all the heat is heard the constant plash of 
the sun-lit fountains, that wave to and fro their veils of Avhite spray. At 
last the clock strikes. In the far balcony are seen the two great showy 
peacock fans, and between them a figure clad in white, that rises from 
a golden chair, and spreads his great sleeves like wings as he raises his 
arms in benediction. That is the pope, Pius the Ninth. All is dead 
silence, and a musical voice, sweet and penetrating, is heard chanting 
from the balcony ; — the people bend and kneel ; with a cold gray flash, 
all the bayonets gleam as the soldiers drop to their knees, and rise to 
salute as the voice dies away, and the two white wings are again waved ; 
— then thunder the cannon, — the bells clash and peal, — ^ few Avhite 
papers, like huge snow-flakes, drop wavering from the balcony ; — these 
are Indulgences, and there is an eager struggle for them below ; — then 
the pope again rises, again gives his benediction,* waving to and fro 
his right hand, three fingers open, and making the sign of the cross, — • 
and the peacock fans retire, and he between them is borne away, — and 
Lent is over." — Story's Roba di Roma. 

The first church which existed on or near the site of the 
present building, was the oratory founded in a.d. 90, by 
Anacletus, bishop of Rome, who is said to have been 
ordained by St. Peter himself, and who thus marked the 
spot where many Christian martyrs had suffered in the 
circus of Nero, and where St. Peter was buried after his 
crucifixion. 

In 306 Constantine the Great yielded to the request of 
Pope Sylvester, and began the erection of a basilica on this 
spot, labouring with his own hands at the work, and him- 
self carrying away twelve loads of earth, in honour of the 

* It may not be uninteresting to give the actual words of the benediction : — 

" May the holy apostles Peter and Paul, in whose power and dominion we trust, 
pray for us to the Lord ! Amen. 

" Through the prayers and merits of the blessed, eternal Virgin Mary, of the blessed 
archangel Michael, the blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, 
and all saints — may the Almighty God have mercy upon you, may your .sins be for- 
given you, and may Jesus Christ lead you to eternal life. Amen. 

" Indulgence, absolution, and forgiveness of all sins — time for true repentance, a 
continual penitent heart and amendment of life,— may the Almighty and merciful God 
grant you these ! Amen. 

"And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend 
i.pon you, and remain with you for ever. Amen." 



THE STORY OF THE BASILICA. 507 

twelve apostles.* Anastasius describes how the body of 
the great apostle was exhumed at this time, and re-interred 
in a shrine of silver, enclosed in a sarcophagus of gilt 
bronze. The early basilica measured 395 feet in length 
by 212 in width. Its nave and aisles were divided by 
eighty-six marble pillars of different sizes, in great part 
brought from the Septizonium of Severus, and it had an 
atrium, and 2i paradisus, or quadrangular portico, along its 
front.t Though only half the size of the present cathedral, 
still it covered a greater space than any mediaeval cathedral 
except those of Milan and Seville, with which it ranked in 
size. X 

The old basiHca suffered severely in the Saracenic inva- 
sion of 846, when some authorities maintain that even the 
tomb of t?he great apostle was rifled of its contents, but it 
was restored by Leo IV., who raised the fortifications of the 
Borgo for its defence. 

Among the most remarkable of its early pilgrims were, 
Theodosius, who came to pray for a victory over Eugenius ; 
Valentinian, emperor of the East, with his wife Eudoxia, 
and his mother Galla-Placidia ; Belisarius, the great general 
under Justinian ; Totila ; Cedwalla, king of the West 
Saxons, who came for baptism ; Concred, king of the 
Mercians, w^ho came to remain as a monk, having cut off 
and consecrated his long hair at the tomb of St. Peter; 
Luitprand, king of the Lombards ; Ina of Wessex, who 
founded a church here in honour of the Virgin, that Anglo- 
Saxons might have a place of prayer, and those who died, a 
grave ; Carloman of France, who came for absolution and 
remained as a monk, first at S. Oreste (Soracte), then at 
Monte Casino ; Richard of England ; Bertrade, wife of 
Pepin, and mother of Charlemagne ; Ofifa, the Saxon, 
who made his kingdom tributary to St. Peter ; Charle- 
magne (four times), who was crowned here by Leo III. ; 
Lothaire, crowned by Paschal I. ; and, in the last year 
of the reign of Leo IV., Ethelwolf, king of the Anglo- 
Saxons, who was crowned here, remained a year, and who 

* " Exuer.s se chlamyde, et accipiens bidentem, ipse primus terram aperuit ad 
fundamenta basilicae Sancti Petri contiiiendam ; deinde in numero duodecim aposto- 
lorum duodecim cophinos plenos in humeris superimpositos bajulano, de eo loco ubi 
fundamenta Basilicae Apostoli erant jacenda." — Cod. Vat. 7. SanctaCcpcil. 2. 

+ The fa(;ade of the old basilica is seen in Raphael's fresco of the Incendio del P.nrgo, 
and it'^ inferior in that of the Coronation of Charlemagne. 

X Sec r crgusson's Handbook, of Architecture, vol. ii. 

2 L 



5o8 WALKS IN ROME. 

brought with him his boy of six years oUl, aftervvaris the 
great Alfred. 

Of the old basiUca, the crypt is now the only remnant, 
and there are collected the few relics preserved of the end- 
less works of art with which it was filled, and which for the 
most part were lost or wilfully destroyed, when it was pulled 
down. Its destruction was first planned by Nicholas V. 
(1450), but was not carried out till the time of Julius II., 
who in 1506 began the new St. Peter's from designs of 
Bramante. The four great piers and their arches above 
were completed, before the deaths of both Bramante and 
Pope Julius interrupted the work. The next pope, Leo X., 
obtained a design for a church in the form of a Latin cross 
from Raphael, which was changed, after his death (on 
account of expense) to a Greek cross, by Baldassare Peruzzi, 
who only lived to complete the tribune. Paul III. (1534) 
employed Antonio di Sangallo as an architect, who returned 
to the design of a Latin cross, but died before he could 
carry out any of his intentions. Giulio Romano succeeded 
him and died also. Then the pope, "being inspired by 
God," says Vasari, sent for Michael Angelo, then in his 
seventy-second year, who continued the work under Julius 
III., returning to the plan of a Greek cross, enlarging the 
tribune and transepts, and beginning the dome on a new 
plan, which he said would " raise the Pantheon in the air." 
The dome designed by Michael Angelo, however, was very 
different to that which we now admire, being much lower, 
flatter, and heavier. The present dome is due to Giacomo 
della Porta, who brought the great work to a conclusion in 
1590, under Sixtus V., who devoted 100,000 gold crowns 
annually to the building. In 1605 Paul V. destroyed all 
that remained of the old basilica, and employed Carlo 
Maderno as his architect, who once more returned to 
the plan of the Latin cross, and completed the present 
ugly facade in 16 14. The church was dedicated by Urban 
VIII., November i8th, 1626; the colonnade added by 
Alexander VII., 1667, the sacristy by Pius VI., in 1780. 
The building of the present St. Peter's extended altogether 
over 176 years, and its expenses were so great that Julius 
II. and Leo X. were obliged to meet them by the 
sale of indulgences, which led to the Reformation. 
The expense of the main building alone has been 



FA(^ADE OF ST. PETER'S. 509 

estimated at 10,000,000/. The annual expense of repairs 
is 6300/. 

•* St. Pierre est line sorte de ville a part dans Rome, ayant son climat, 
sa temperature propre, sa lumiere trop vive pour etre religieuse, tantot 
deserte, tantot traversee par des societes de voyageurs, ou remplie d'line 
foiile attiree par les ceremonies religieuses (a I'epoque des jubiles le 
nombre des pelerins s'est parfois eleve a Rome, jusqu'a 400,cxx)). 
Elle a ses reservoirs d'eau; sa fontaine coulant perpetuellement au pied 
de la grande coupole, dans un bassin de plomb, pour la commodite des 
travaux ; ses rampes, par lesquelles les betes de somme peuvent monter ; 
sa population fixe, habitant ses terrasses. Les San Pietrine, ouvriers 
charges de tous les travaux qu'exige la conservation d'un aussi precieux 
edifice, s'y succedent de pere en fils, et forment une corporation qui a ses 
lois et sa police." — A. Du Pays. 

The fagade of St. Peter's is 357 feet long and 144 feet 
high. It is surmounted by a balustrade six feet in height, 
bearing statues of the Saviour and the Twelve Apostles. 
Over the central entrance is the loggia where the pope is 
crowned, and whence he gives the Easter benediction. 
The huge inscription runs — " In . Honorem . Principis . 
Apost . Paulus V . Burghesius . Romanus . Pont . Max . A. 
MDCXII . Pont. VII.'' 

"I don't like to say the fa9ade of the church is ugly and obtnisive. 
As long as the dome overawes, that fa9ade is supportable. You advance 
towards it — through, O such a noble court ! with fountains flashing up 
to meet the sunbeams ; and right and left of you two sweeping half- 
crescents of great columns ; but you pass by the courtiers and up to 
the steps of the throne, and the dome seems to disappear behind it. It 
is as if the throne was upset, and the king had toppled over." — Thack- 
eray, The Newcomes. 

A wide flight of steps, at the foot of which are statues of 
St Peter by De Fabris, and St. Paul by Tadolmi, lead by 
fine entrances to the Vestibule, which is 468 feet long, 66 
feet high, and 50 feet wide. Closing it on the right is a 
statue of Constantine by Ber?mii — on the left that of Char- 
lemagne by CornaccJwii. Over the principal entrance (facing 
the door of the church) is the celebrated Mosaic of the 
Navicella, executed 1298, by Giotto., and his pupil, Pietro 
Cavallini. 

" For the ancient basilica of St. Peter, Giotto executed his celebrated 
mosaic of the Navicella, which has an allegorical foundation. It repre- 
sents a ship, with the disciples, on an agitated sea ; the winds, personified 
as demons, storm against it ; above appear the Fathers of the Old 
Testament speaking comfort to the sufferers. According to the early 
Christian symbolization, the ship denoted the Church. Nearer, and on 



5IO WALKS IN ROME, 

the right, in a firm attitude, stands Christ, the Rock of the Church, 
raising Peter from the waves. Opposite sits a fisherman in tranquil 
expectation, denoting the hope of the believer. The mosaic has fr equently 
changed its place, and has undergone so many restorations, that the 
composition alone can be attributed to Giotto. The fisherman and the 
figures hovering in the air are, in their present form, the work of Mar- 
cello Provenzale." — Kugler, i. 127. 

"This mosaic is ill placed and ill seen for an especial reason. Early 
converts from paganism retained the heathen custom of turning round to 
venerate the sun before entering a church, so that in the old basilica, as 
here, the mosaic was thus placed to give a fitting object of worship. 
The learned Cardinal Baronius never, for a single day, during the space 
of thirty years, failed to bow before this symbol of the primitive Church, 
tossed on the stormy sea of persecution and of sin, saying, ' Lord, save 
me from the waves.of sin as thou didst Peter from the waves of the sea.' " 
— Mrs. Elliofs Historical Pictures. 

The magnificent central door of bronze is a remnant from 
the old basilica, and was made in the time of Eugenius IV., 
143 1 — 39, by Antonio Filarete, and Simone, brother of 
Donatello. The bas-reliefs of the compartments represent 
the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul, and the principal 
events in the reign of Eugenius, — the council of Florence, 
the Coronation of Sigismund, emperor of Germany, &c. 
The bas-reliefs of the framework are entirely mythological ; 
Ganymede, Leda and her Swan, &c., are to be distinguished. 

*' Corinne fit remarquer a Lord Nelvil que sur les portes etaient 
representees en bas-relief les metamorphoses d'Ovide. On ne se 
scandalise point a Rome, lui dit-elle, des images du paganisme, quand 
les beaux-arts les ont consacrees. Les merveilles du genie |X)rtent 
toujours a I'ame une impression religieuse, et nous faisons homniage au 
culte Chretien de tons les chefs-d'oeuvre que les autres cultes ont 
inspires." — Mad. de Sta'el. 

Let into the wall between the doors are three remark- 
able inscriptions : i. Commemorating the donation made to 
the church by Gregory II., of certain olive-grounds to pro- 
vide oil for the lamps ; 2. The bull of Boniface VIlL, 1300, 
granting the indulgence proclaimed at every jubilee ; 3. 
In the centre the Latin epitaph of Adrian I. (Colonna, 
772 — 95), by Charlemagne,* one of the most ancient memo- 
rials of the papacy : 

** The father of the Church, the ornament of Rome, the famous writer 
Adrian, the blessed pope, rests in peace: 
God was his life, love was his law, Christ was his glory ; 

* As in the portico of the temple of Mars were preserved the verses of the poet 
Attiiis upon Junius Brutus- 



PORTICO OF ST. PETER'S. 511 

He was the apostolic shepherd, always ready to do that which was 

right. 
Of noble birth, and descended from an ancient race, 
He received a still greater nobility from his virtues. 
The pious soul of this good shepherd was always bent 
Upon ornamenting the temples consecrated to God. 
He gave gifts to the churches, and sacred dogmas to the people; 
And showed us all the way to heaven. 
Liberal to the poor, his charity was second to none, 
And he always watched over his people in prayer. 
By his teachings, his treasures, and his buildings, he raised, 
O illustrious Rome, thy monuments, to be the honour of the town 

and of the world. 
Death could not injure him, for its sting was taken away by the death 

of Christ ; 
It opened for him the gate of the better life. 
I, Charles, have written these verses, while weeping for my father; 

O my father, my beloved one, how lasting is my grief for thee. 
Dost thou think upon me, as I follow thee constantly in spirit ; 
Now reign blessed with Christ in the heavenly kingdom. 
The clergy and people have loved you with a heart -love. 
Thou wert truly the love of the world, O excellent priest. 
O most illustrious, I unite our two names and titles, 
Adrian and Charles, the king and the father. 
O thou who readest these verses, say with pious heart the prayer; 
O merciful Gotl, have pity upon them both. 
Sweetly slumbering, O friend, may thy earthly body rest in the 

grave. 
And thy spirit wander in bliss with the saints of the Lord 
Till the last trumpet sounds in thine ears. 
Then arise with Peter to the contemplation of God. 
Yes, I know that thou wilt hear the voice of the merciful judge 
Bid thee to enter the paradise of thy Saviour. 
Then, O great father, think upon thy son, 
And ask, that with the father the son may enter into joy- 
Go, blessed father, enter into the kingdom of Christ, 
And thence, as an intercessor, help thy people with thy prayers. 
Even so long as the sun rolls upon its fiery axis, 
Shall thy glory, O heavenly father, remain in the world. 
Adrian the pope, of blessed memory, reigned for three-and-twenty 
years, ten months, and seventeen days, and died on the 25th of 
December." 

The walled-up door on the right is the Porta Santa, only- 
opened for the jubilee, which has taken place every twenty- 
fifth year (except 1850) since the time of Sixtus IV. The 
pope himself gives the signal for the destruction of the wall 
on the Christmas-eve before the sacred year. 

"After preliminary prayers from Scripture singularly apt, the pope 
goes down from his throne, and, armed with a silver hammer, strikes 
the vval.l in the doorway, which, having been cut round from its jambs 



5 1 2 WALKS IN ROME. 

and lintel, falls at once inwards, and is cleared away in a moment by the 
San Pietrini. The pope, then, bare-headed and torch in hand, first 
enters the door, and is followed by his cardinals and his other attend- 
ants to the high altar, where the first vespers of Christmas Day are 
chaunted as usual. The other doors of the church are then tlung open, 
and the great queen of churches is filled." — Cardinal IViseinan. 

" Arretez-vous un moment ici, dit Corinne a Lord Nelvil, comme il 
etait deja sous le portique de I'eglise ; arretez-vous, avant de souleverle 
rideau qui couvre la porte du temple ; votre coeur ne bat-il pas a I'ap- 
proche de ce sanctuaire? et ne ressentez-vous pas, au moment d'entrer, 
tout ce que ferait eprouver I'attente d'mi evenement solennel ? " — Mad. 
de Stael. 

We now push aside the heavy double curtain and enter 
the Basilica. 

'* Hilda had not always been adequately impressed by the grandeur of 
this mighty cathedral. When she first lifted the heavy leathern curtains, 
at one of the doors, a shadowy edifice in her imagination had been 
dazzled out of sight by the reality." — Hawthorne. 

" The interior burst i\pon our astonished gaze, resplendent in light, 
magnificence, and beauty, beyond all that imagination can conceive. Its 
apparent smallness of size, however, mingled some degree of surprise, 
and even disappointment, with my admiration ; but as I walked slowly 
up its long nave, empanelled with the rarest and richest marbles, and 
adorned with every art of sculpture and taste, and cavight through the 
lofty arches opening views of chapels, and tombs, and altars of surpassing 
splendour, I felt that it was, indeed, unparalleled in beauty, in magnitude, 
and magnificence, and one of the noblest and most wonderful of the 
works of man."— iS'a^c;^'^ Rome. 

** St. Peter's, that glorious temple — the largest and most beautiful, it 
is said, in the world, produced upon me the impression rather of a 
Christian pantheon, than of a Christian church. The aesthetic intellect 
is edified more than the God-loving or God-seeking soul. The exterior 
and interior of the building appear to me more like an apotheosis of the 
popedom than a glorification of Christianity and its doctrine. Monu- 
ments to the popes occupy too much space. One sees all round the 
walls angels flying upwards with papal portraits, sometimes merely with 
papal tiaras." — Frcderika Bremer. 

" L' Architecture de St. Pierre est une musique fixee." — Madame de 
Stael. 

" The building of St. Peter's surpasses all powers of description. It 
appears to me like some great work of nature, a forest, a mass of rocks, 
or something similar ; for I never can realise the idea that it is the 
work of man. You strive to distinguish the ceiling as little as the 
canopy of heaven. You lose your way in St. Peter's, you take a walk 
in it, and ramble till you are quite tired ; when divine service is i)er- 
formed and chaunted there, you are not aware of it till you come quite 
close. The angels in the Baptistery are enonnous giants ; the doves, 
colossal birds of prey ; you lose all sense of measurement with the eye, 
or proportion ; and yet who does not feel his hearf expand, wh'jn 
standing under the dome, and gazing up at it." — Mendelssohn's 
Letters. 



NAVE OF ST. PETER'S. 513 

•'But thou, of temples old, or altars new, 
Standest alone — with nothing like to thee — 
Worthiest of God, the holy and the true. 
Since Zion's desolation, when that He 
Forsook His former city, what could be 
Of earthly structures, in His honour piled, 
Of a sublimer aspect ? Majesty, 
Power, Clory, Strength, and Beauty, — all are aisled 
In this eternal ark of worship undefiled. 

" Enter : its grandeur overwhelms thee not ; 
And why ? it is not lessen'd ; but thy mind, 
Expanded by the genius of the spot, 
Has grown colossal, and can only find 
A fit abode wherein appear enshrined 
Thy hopes of immortality ; and thou 
Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined, 
See thy God face to face, as thou dost now 
His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by His brow." 

Byron^ Childe Harold. 

** On pousse avec peine une grosse portiere de cuir, et nous voici dans 
Saint-Pierre. On ne pent qu'adorer la religion qui produit de telles 
choses. Rien du monde ne pent etre compare a I'interieur de Saint 
Pierre. Apres un an de sejour a Rome, j'y allais encore passer des 
heures entieres avec plaisir. " — Fontana, Tempio Vaiicano Illustrato. 

*' Tandis que, dans les eglises gothiques, I'impression estde s'agenou- 
iller, de joindre les mains avec un sentiment d 'humble priere et de 
pro fond regret ; dans Saint-Pierre au contraire, le mouvement involon- 
taire serait d'ouvrir les bras en signe de joie, de relever la tete avec bon- 
heur et epanouissement. II semble, que la, le peche n'accable plus ; 
le sentiment vif du pardon par le triomphe de la resurrection remplit 
seul le coeur." — Eugenie de la Fen'onays. 

"The temperature of St. Peter's seems, like the happy islands, to 
experience no change. In the coldest weather it is like summer to your 
feelings, and in the most oppressive heats it strikes you with a delightful 
sensation of cold — a luxury not to be estimated but in a climate such as 
this." — Eaton s Rome. 

On each side of the nave are four pillars with Corinthian 
pilasters, and a rich entablature supporting the arches. The 
roof is vaulted, coffered, and gilded. The pavement is of 
coloured marble, inlaid from designs of Giacomo della 
Porta and Bernini. In the centre of the floor, immediately 
within the chief entrance, is a round slab of porphyry, upon 
which the emperors were crowned. 

The enormous size of the statues and ornaments in St. 
Peter's do away with the impression of its vast size, and it 
is only by observing the living, moving figures, that one 
can form any idea of its colossal proportions. A line in 
the pavement is marked with the comparative size of the 



514 WALKS IN ROME. 

Other great Christian churches. According to t lis the 
length of St. Peter's is 613I feet; of St. Paul's, London, 
520-^ feet ; Milan Cathedral, 443 feet; St. Sophia, Constan- 
tinople, 360^ feet. The height of the dome in the interior 
is 405 feet ; on the exterior, 448 feet. The height of the 
baldacchino is 94^ feet. 

The first impulse will be to go up to the shrine, around 
which a circle of eighty-six gold lamps is always burning, 
and to look down into the Confessional, where there is a 
beautiful kneeling statue of Pope Pius VI. (Braschi, 1785 — 
1800) by Cajiova. Hence one can gaze up into the dome, 
with its huge letters in purple-blue mosaic upon a gold 
ground (each six feet long).* " Tu es Petrus, et super 
banc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et tibi dabo claves 
regni coelorum." Above this are four colossal mosaics of 
the Evangelists from designs of the Cav. d'Arpino ; the pen 
of St. Luke is seven feet in length. 

" The cupola is glorious, viewed in its design, its altitude, or even its 
decorations ; viewed either as a whole or as a part, it enchants the eye, 
it satisfies the taste, it expands the soul. The very air seems to eat up 
all that is harsh or colossal, and leaves us nothing but the sublime to 
feast on : — a sublime peculiar as the genius of the immortal architect, 
and comprehensible only on the spot." — Forsyth. 

" Ce dome, en le considerant meme d'en bas, fait eprouver une sorte 
de terreur ; on croit voir des abimes suspendus sur sa tete." — Madame de 
Stael. 

The Baldacchi7io, designed by Bernini in 1633, is of 
bronze, with gilt ornaments, and was made chiefly with 
bronze taken from the roof of the Pantheon. It covers the 
high altar, which is only used on the most solemn occasions. 
Only the pope can celebrate mass there, or a cardinal who 
is authorised by a papal brief. 

'* Without a sovereign priest officiating before and for his people, St. 
Peter's is but a grand aggregation of splendid churches, chapels, tombs, 
and works of art. With him, it becomes a whole, a single, peerless 
temple, such as tlie world never saw before. I'hat central pile, with its 
canopy of bronze as lofty as the Farnese Palace, with its deep-diving stairs 
leading to a court walled and paved with precious stones, that yet seems 
only a vestibule to some cavern or catacomb, with its simple altar that 
disdains ornament in the presence of what is beyond the reach of human 
price, — that which in truth forms the heart of the great body, placed just 
where the heart should be, is then animated, and surrounded by living 
and moving sumptuousness. The immense cupola above it, ceases to 

* These letters are in real mosaic. Those in the nave and transeptf are in paper 
—to complete them in mosaic would have been too expensive. 



THE RELICS OF ST. PETEI^S. 515 

be a dome over a sepulchre, and becomes a canopy over an altar ; the 
quiet tomb beneath is changed into the shrine of relics below the place 
of sacrifice- — the saints under the altar ; — the quiet spot at which a few 
devout worshippers at most times may be found, bowing under the hun- 
dred lamps, is crowded by rising groups, beginning from the lowest step, 
increasing in dignity and in richness of sacred robes, till, at the summit 
and in the centre, stands supreme the pontiff himself, on the very spot 
which becomes him, the one living link in a chain, the first ring of 
which is rivetted to the shrine of the Apostles below .... St. 
Peter's is only itself when the pope is at the high altar, and hence only 
by, or for, him it is used. " — Cardinal Wise7Jian. 

The four huge piers which support the dome are used as 
shrines for the four great reHcs of the church, viz., i. The 
lance of S. Longinus, the soldier who pierced the side of 
our Saviour, presented to Innocent VIIL, by Pierre d'Au- 
busson, grandmaster of the Knights of Rhodes, who had 
received it from the Sultan Bajazet ; "' 2. The head of St. 
Andrew, said to have been brought from Achaia in 1460, 
when its arrival was celebrated by Pius II. ; 3. A portion of 
the true cross, brought by Sta. Helena ; 4. The napkin of 
Sta. Veronica, said, doubtless from the affinity of names, to 
bear the impression — vera-iconica — of our Saviour's face. 

" The ' Volto- Santo,' said to be the impress of the countenance of our 
Saviour on the handkerchief of Sta. Veronica, or Berenice, which wiped 
his brow on the way to Calvary, was placed in the Vatican by John VII,, 
in 707, and afterwards transferred to the Church of Santo Spirito, where 
six Roman noblemen had the care of it, each taking charge of one of the 
keys with which it was locked up. Among the privileges enjoyed for 
this office, was that of receiving, every year, from the hospital of Santo 
Spirito at the feast of Pentecost, two cows, whose flesh, an ancient 
chronicle says, 'si mangiavano li, con gran festa.' In 1440, this picture 
was carried back to St. Peter's, whence it has not since been moved. 
"When I examined the head on the Veronica handkerchief, it struck me 
as undoubtedly a work of early Byzantine art, perhaps of the seventh 
or eighth century, painted on linen. It is with implicit acceptance of 
its claims that Petrarch alludes to it — 'verendam populis Salvatoris 
Imaginem.' Ep. ix., lib. 2. During the republican domination in 
1849, it was rumoured that about Easter, the canons of St. Peter saw 
the Volto-Santo turn pale, and ominously change colour while they gazed 
upon it." — Hemans' Catholic Italy, vol. i. 

The ceremony of exhibiting the relics from the balcony 
above the statue of Sta. Veronica takes place on Holy 
Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Day, but the height is 
so great that nothing can really be distinguished. 

• Innocent sent two bishops to receive it at Ancona, two cardinals to receive it at 
Narni, and went himself, with all his court, to meet it at the Porto del Popolo. 



5i6 WALKS IN ROME, 

*' To-day we gazed on the Veronica — the holy impression left by our 
Saviour's face on the cloth Sta. Veronica presented to him to wipe his 
brow, bowed under the weight of the Cross. We had looked forward to 
this sight for days, for seven thousand yeai's of indulgence from penance 
are attached to it. 

" But when the moment came we could see nothing but a black board 
hung Avith a cloth, before which another white cloth was held. In a 
few minutes this was withdrawn, and the great moment was over, the 
glimpse of the sacred thing on which hung the fate of seven thousand 
years." — Schonberg- Cotta Chronicles. 

The niches in the piers are occupied by four statues, 
of Longinus, St. Andrew, Sta. Helena, and Sta. Veronica, 
holding the napkin or " sudarium/' " flourishing a marble 
pocket-handkerchief." * 

" Malheureusement toutes ces statues pechent parle gout. Le rococo, 
mis a la mode par le Bernin, est surtout execrable dans le genre colos- 
sale. Mais la presence du genie de Bramante et de Michel-Ange se fait 
tellement sentir, que les choses ridicules ne le sont plus ici ; elles ne sont 
qu' insignifiantes. Les statues colossales des piliers representent : St. 
Andre, par Francois Quesnoy (Fiamniingo), elle excita la jalousie du 
Bernin ; St. Veronique par M. Mochi, dont il blamait les draperies 
volantes (dans un endroit clos). Un plaisant lui repondait que leur 
agitation provenait du vent qui soufflait par les crevasses de la coupole, 
depuisqu'il avait afifaibli les piliers par des niches et tribunes: St. Helcne 
par A. Bolgi, St. Longin par Bernin." — A. Du Pays. 

Not very far from the confessional, against the last pier 
on the right of the nave, stands the statue of St. Peter, said 
to have been cast by Leo the Great, from the old statue of 
Jupiter Capitolinus. It is of very rude workmanship. Its 
extended foot is eagerly kissed by Roman Catholic de- 
votees, who then rub their foreheads against its toes. Pro- 
testants wonder at the feeling which this statue excites. 
Gregory II. wrote of it to Leo the Isaurian : " Christ is my 
witness, that when I enter the temple of the prince of the 
Apostles, and contemplate his image, I am filled with such 
emotion, that tears roll down my cheeks like the rain from 
heaven." On high festivals this statue is dressed up in full 
pontificals. On the day of the jubilee of Pius IX. (June 
1 6, 187 1 ), it was attired in a lace alb, stole, and gold-em- 
broidered cope, fastened at the breast by a clasp of diamonds : 
the foot of the statue was kissed by upwards of 20,000 per- 
sons during the day. 

•* La coutume antique chez les Grecs d'habiller et de parer les .statues 
* Eaton's Rome. 



STATUE OF ST PETER. 517 

sacrees s'etait conseivee a Rome et s'y conserve encore. Tout le niontle 
a vu la statue de saint Pierre revetir dans les grandes solennites ses 
magnifiques habits de pape. On lavait les statues des dieux, on les frot- 
tait, on les frisait comme des poupees. Les divinites du Capitole 
avaient un nombreux domestique attache a leur personne et qui etait 
charge de ce scin. L'usage romain a subsiste chez les y)opu]ations 
latines de I'Espagne et elles I'ont porte jusqu'au Mexique oa j'ai vu, a 
Puebla, la veille d'une fete, une femme de chambre faire une toilette en 
regie a une statue de la Vierge," — Ampere, Hist. Rai7i. iv. 91. 

Along the piers of the nave and transepts are ranged 
statues of the different Founders, male and female, of reli- 
gious Orders. 

Returning to the main entrance, we will now make the 
tour of the basilica. Those who expect to find monuments 
of great historical interest will, however, be totally disap- 
pointed. Scarcely anything remains above-ground Avhich is 
earlier than the sixteenth century. Of the tombs of the 
eighty-seven popes who were buried in the old basilica, 
the greater part were totally lost at its destruction, — a few 
were removed to other churches (those of the Piccolomini 
to S. Andrea della Valle, Sec), and some fragments are still 
to be seen in the crypt. Only two monuments were replaced 
in the new basilica, those of the two popes who lived in the 
time and excited the indignation of Savonarola — "Sixtus 
IV., with whose cordial concurrence the assassination of 
Lorenzo di Medici was attempted — and Innocent VIII., 
the main object of whose policy was to secure place and 
power for his illegitimate children." 

"The side-chapels are splendid, and so large that they might serve 
for independent churches. The monuments and statues are numerous, 
but all are subordinate, or unite harmoniously with the large and beau- 
tiful proportions of the chief temple. Everything there is harmony, 
light, beauty — an image of the church-triumphant, but a very worldly, 
earthly image ; and whilst the mind enjoys its splendour, the soul cannot, 
in the higher sense, be edified by its symbolism." — Frederika Brcnier. 

The first chapel on the right derives its name from the 
Picta of Michael A figelo., representing the dead Saviour upon 
the knees of the Madonna, a work of the great artist in his 
twenty-fourth year, upon an order from the French ambas- 
sador, Cardinal Jean de Villiers, abbot of St. Denis. The 
sculptor has inscribed his name (the only instance in which he 
has done so) upon the girdle of the Virgin. Francis I. at- 
tempted to obtain this group from Michael Angelo in 1507, 
together with the statue of Christ at the Minerva, " comme 



5 1 8 WALJCS IN R OME, 

de choses que Ton m'a assure estre des plus exquises et ex- 
cellentes en votre art." Opening from this chapel are two 
smaller ones. That on the right has a Crucifix by Pietro 
Cavallini ; the mosaic, representing St. Nicholas of Bari, 
is by Christofa?'i. That on the left is called Capella della 
Colonna Santa, from a column, said to have been brought 
from Jerusalem, and to have been that against which our 
Saviour leant, when he prayed and taught in the temple. 
It is inscribed : 

"Haec est ilia columna in qua DXS N' Jesus XPS appodiatus dum 
populo praedicabat et Deo pno preces in templo effundebat adhaerendo, 
stabatque una cum aliis undeci hie circumstantibus de Salomonis templo 
in triumphum. Hujus Basilicce hie locata fuit demones expellit et immun- 
dis spiritibus vexatos liberos reddit et multa miracula cotidie facit. P. 
reverendissimum prem et Dominum Dominus. Card, de Ursinis. A.D. 

MDCCCXXXVIII." 

A more interesting object in this chapel is the sarcophagus 
(once used as a font) of Anicius Probus, a prefect of Rome 
in the fourth centur)^, of the great family of the Anicii, 
to which St. Gregory the Great belonged. Its five com- 
partments have bas-reliefs, representing Christ and the 
Apostles. 

Returning to the aisle, on the right, is the tomb of Leo 
XII., Annibale della Genga (1823 — 29) by Fabi'is ; on the 
left is the tomb of Christina of Sweden, daughter of Gus- 
tavus Adolphus, who died at Rome, 1689, by Carlo Fo?ita?ia, 
with a bas-relief by Teudon, representing her abjuration of 
Protestantism in 1655, in the cathedral of Innspruck. 

On the right is the altar of St. Sebastian, with a mosaic 
copy of Domenichino's picture at Sta. Maria degli Angeli ; 
beyond which is the tomb of Innocent XII., Antonio Pigna- 
telli (169 c — 1700). This was the last pope who wore the 
martial beard and moustache, which we see represented in 
his statue. Pignatella is Italian for a little cream-jug ; in 
allusion to this we may see three little cream-jugs in the 
upper decorations of this monument, which is by Filippo 
Valle. On the left is the tomb, by Berfiini, of the Countess 
Matilda, foundress of the temporal power of the popes, who 
died in 11 15, was buried in a monastery near Mantua, and 
transported hither by Urban VIII. in 1635. The bas-relief 
represents the absolution of Henry IV. of Germany, by 
Hildebrand, which took place at her intercession, and in 
her presence. 



MONUMENTS OF ST. PETERS. 519 

We now reach, on the right, the large Chapel of the San- 
tissimo Sacramento, decorated with a fresco altar-piece, repre- 
senting the Trinity, by Pietro da Cortona, and a tabernacle of 
lapis-lazuli and gilt bronze, copied from Bramante's little 
temple at S. Pietro in Montorio. Here is the magnificent 
tomb of Sixtus IV., Francesco della Rovere (1471 — 81), re- 
moved from the choir of the old St. Peter's, where it was 
erected by his nephew. Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, after- 
wards Pope JuUus II, This pope's reign was entirely occu- 
pied with politics, and he was secretly involved in the 
conspiracy of the Pazzi at Florence ; he was the first pope 
who carried nepotism to such an extent as to found a prin- 
cipality (Imola and Forli) for his nephew Girolamo Riario. 
The tomb is a beautiful work of the Florentine artist, Antonio 
PoUajiwla, in 1493. The figure of the pope reposes upon a 
bronze couch, surrounded, in memory of his having taught 
successively in the six great universities of Italy, with alle- 
gorical bas-reliefs of Arithmetic, Astrology, Philology, Rhe- 
toric, Grammar, Perspective, Music, Geography, Philosophy, 
and Theology, which last is represented like a pagan Diana, 
with a quiver of arrows on her shoulders. Close to this 
monument of his uncle, a flat stone in the pavement marks 
the grave of Julius II., for whom the grand tomb at S. Pietro 
in Vincoli was intended. 

Returning to the aisle, we see on the right the tomb 
of Gregory XIII., Ugo Buoncompagni (1572 — 85), during 
whose reign the new calendar was invented, an event com- 
memorated in a bas-relief upon the monument, which was 
not erected till 1723, and is by Ca?7iillo Rusconi. The 
figure of the pope (he died aged eighty-four) is in the 
attitude of benediction : beneath are Wisdom, represented 
as Minerva, and Faith, holding a tablet inscribed, " Novi 
opera hujus et fidem." Opposite this is the paltry tomb of 
Gregory XIV., Nicolo Sfrondati (1590 — 91). 

" Le tombeau de Gregoire XIII., que le massacre de Saint Barthe- 
lemy rejouit si fort, est de marbre. Le tombeau de stuc ou d'abord il 
avait ete place, a ete accorde, apres son depart, au cendres de Gregoire 

XIV."— 6-/^//^//^/. 

On the left, against the great pier, is a mosaic copy of 
Domenichino's Communion of St. Jerome. On the right is 
the chapel of the Madonna, founded by Gregory XIII. , and 
built by Giacomo della Porta. The cupola has mosaics by 



520 WALKS IN ROME, 

Girolamo Muzlano. Beneath the altar is burled St. Gre- 
gory Nazianzen, removed hither from the convent of Sta. 
Maria in the Campo Marzo by Gregory XIII. 

St. Gregory Nazianzen (or St. Gregory Theologos) was son of St. 
Gregory and St. Nonna, and brother of St. Gorgonia and St. Cesarea. 
He was boiui c. A.D. 328. In his childhood he was influenced by a vision 
of the two virgins, Temperance and Chastity, summoning him to pursue 
them to the joys of Paradise. Being educated at Athens (together with 
Juhan the Apostate), he formed there a great friendship with St. Basil. 
He became first the coadjutor, afterwards the successor, of his father, in 
the bishopric of Nazianzen, but removed thence to Constantinople, 
where he preached against the Arians. By the influence of Theodosius, 
he was ordained Bishop of Constantinople, but was so worn out by 
the cabals and schisms in the church, that he resigned his office, and 
retired to his paternal estate, where he passed the remainder of his life 
in the composition of Greek hymns and poems. He died May 9, 
A.D. 390. 

On the right is the tomb of Benedict XIV., Prospero 
Lambertini (1740 — 58), hy Pidro Bracci, a huge and ugly 
monument. On the left is the tomb of Gregory XVI., 
Mauro-Cappellari (1831 — 46), by Amid, erected in 1855 by 
the cardinals he had created. 

Turning into the right transept, used as a council-chamber 
(for which purpose it proved thoroughly unsatisfactory, 
1869 — 70), we find several fine mosaics from pictures, viz. : 
The Martyrdom of SS. Processus and Martinianus from the 
Valentin at the Vatican ; the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus from 
Poussin ; St. Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, from Caroselli ; 
Our Saviour walking on the sea to the boat of St. Peter, 
from Lanfranco. 

Opposite to the last-named mosaic is the famous monu- 
ment of Clement XIII., Carlo Rezzonico (1758 — 69), in 
whose reign the Order of Jesuits was attacked by all the 
sovereigns of the house of Bourbon, and expelled from Por- 
tugal, France, Spain, Naples, and Parma. The pope long 
defended them, but was about to yield to the pressure put 
upon him ; had called a consistory for their suppression, but 
died suddenly on the evening before its assembling. This 
tomb, the greatest work of Canova, was uncovered April 4, 
1795, in the presence of an immense crowd, with whom the 
sculptor mingled, disguised as an abbe, to hear their opinion. 
The pope (aged 75) is represented in prayer, upon a pedestal, 
beneath which is the entrance to a vault, guarded by two 
grand marble lions. On the right is Religion, standing erect 



TRIBUNE OF ST. PETER'S. 521 

with a cross ; on the left the Genius of Death, holding a 
torch reversed. The beauty of this work of Canova is only 
felt when it is compared with the monuments of the seven- 
teenth century in St. Peter's ; " then it seems as if they were 
separated by an abyss of centuries." * 

Beyond this are mosaics from the St. Michael of Guido at 
the Cappuccini, and from the Martyrdom of St. Petronilla, of 
Guercino, at the Capitol. Each of these large mosaics has 
cost about 150,000 francs. 

Now, on the right, is the tomb of Clement X., Gio. 
Baptista Altieri(i67o — 76), by Rossi, the. statue hy £rcole 
Ferrata ; and on the left, is a mosaic of St. Peter raising 
Tabitha from the dead, by Costanzi. 

Ascending into the tribune, we see at the end of the 
church, beneath the very ugly window of yellow glass, the 
*' Cathedra Petri ^' of Bernini, supported by figures of the 
four Fathers of the Church, Augustine, Ambrose, Chry- 
sostom, and Athanasius. Enclosed in this, is a very ancient 
wooden senatorial chair, encrusted with ivory, which is 
believed to have been the episcopal throne of St. Peter and 
his immediate successors. Late Roman Catholic authorities 
(Mgr. Gerbet, &c.) consider that it may perhaps have been 
originally the chair of the senator Pudens, with whom the 
apostle lodged. A magnificent festival in honour of St 
Peter's chair (Natale Petri de Cathedra) has been annually 
celebrated here from the earliest times, and is mentioned in 
a calendar of Pope Liberius of a.d. 354. It is said that if 
any pope were to reign longer tlian the traditional years of 
the government of St. Peter (which no pope has ever done 
yet), St. Peter's chair would be again brought into use. 

On the right of the chair is the tomb of Urban VIII., 
Matteo Barberini(i623 — 44), who was chiefly remarkable from 
his passion for building, and who is perpetually brought to 
mind through the immense number of his erections which still 
exist. The tomb is by Berni?ii, the architect of his endless 
fountains and public buildings, and has the usual fault of this 
sculptor in overloading his figures (except in that of Urban 
himself, which is very fine,t) with meaningless drapery. 
Figures of Charity and Justice stand by the black marble 

* Gregorovius, Grabmiiler der Papste. 

t Ihere is a fine portrait of Urban VIII. by Pietro da Cortona, in the Capitol 
galleiy. 



522 WALKS IN ROME. 

sarcophagus of the pope, and a gilt skeleton is occupied in 
inscribing the name of Urban on the list of Death. 1 he 
v/hole monument is alive with the bees of the Barberini. 
The pendant tomb on the left is that of Paul III., 
Alessandro Farnese (1534 — 50), in whose reign the Order 
of the Jesuits was founded. This pope (the first Roman 
who had occupied the throne for 103 years, since Martin 
v.), was learned, brilliant, and witty. He was adored 
by his people, in spite of his intense nepotism, which 
induced him to form Parma into a duchy for his natural 
son Pierluigi, to build the Farnese Palace, and to marry 
his grandson Ottavio to Marguerite, natural daughter of 
Charles V., to whom he gave the Palazzo Madama and 
the Villa Madama as a do\vTy. His tomb, by Guglielmo 
della Porta, perhaps the finest in St. Peter's, cost 24,000 
Roman crowns ; it was erected in the old basilica just 
before its destruction in 1562, — and in 1574 was transferred 
to this church, where its position was the source of a quarrel 
between the sculptor and Michael Angelo, by whose interest 
he had obtained his commission.* It was first placed on 
the site where the Veronica now stands, whence it was 
moved to its present position in 1629. The figure of the 
pope is in bronze. In its former place four marble statues 
adorned the pedestal ; two are now removed to the Farnese 
Palace ; those which remain, of Prudence and Justice, were 
once entirely nude, but were draped by Bernini. The statue 
of Prudence is said to represent Giovanna Gaetani da Ser- 
moneta, the mother of the pope, and that of Justice his 
famous sister-in-law, Giulia, 

"On adit de ces figures que c'etait le Rubens en sculpture."— .4. 
Du Pays. 

Near the steps of the tribune are two marble slabs, on 
which Pius IX. has immortalised the names of the cardinals 
and bishops who, on December 8, 1854, accepted, on this 
spot, his dogma of the Immaculate Conception. 

Turning towards the left transept ; — on the left is a mosaic 
of St. Peter healing the lame man, from Mancini. On the 
right is the tomb of Alexander VIII., Pietro Ottobuoni 
(1689 — 91), by Giuseppe Ver/osi and Ange/o Rossi, gorgeous 
in its richness of bronze, marbles, and alabasters. Beyond 

* See Vasari, vi. 265. 



MONUMENTS OF ST. PETER'S. 523 

this is the altar of Leo the Great, over which is a huge bas- 
reUef, by Algardi, representing S. Leo calUng down the as- 
sistance of SS. Peter and Paul against the invasion of Attila. 

**The king of the Huns, ' terrified by the apparition of the two 
apostles in the air, turns his back and flies. We have here a picture in 
marble, with all the faults of taste and style which prevailed at that 
time, but the workmanship is excellent ; it is, perhaps, the largest bas- 
relief in existence, excepting the rock sculpture of the Indians and 
Egyptians— at least fifteen feet in height." — Jameson^ s Sacred Art^ p. 685. 

Next to this is the Cappella della Colonna, possessing a 
much revered Madonna from a pillar of the old basilica, and 
beneath it an ancient Christian sarcophagus containing the 
remains of Leo IL (ob. 683), Leo IIL (ob. 816), and Leo 
IV. (ob. 855). In the pavement near these two altars is 
the slab tomb of Leo XII. (ob. 1828), with an epitaph illus- 
trating Invocation of Saints, but touching in its humility. 

** Commending myself, a suppliant, to my great celestial patron. Leo, 
I, Leo XII., his humble client, unworthy of so great a name, have 
chosen a place of sepulture, near his holy ashes." 

Over the door known as the Porta Sta. Marta (from the 
church in the square behind St. Peter's, to which it leads), is 
the tomb of Alexander VII., Fabio Chigi (1655 — 67), the last 
work of Bernini, who had built for this pope the Scala-Regia 
and the Colonnade of St. Peter's. This is, perhaps, the 
worst of all the papal monuments — a hideous figure of 
Death is pushing aside an alabaster curtain and exhibiting 
his hour-glass to the kneeling pope. 

Opposite to this tomb is an oil painting on slate, by 
Francesco Vanni, of the Fall of Simon Magus. The south 
transept has a series of mosaic pictures ; The Incredulity of 
St. Thomas from Camuccini, the Crucifixion of St. Peter 
and a St. Francis from Guido, and, on the pier of the Cupola, 
Ananias and Sapphira from the Roncalli at Sta. Maria degli 
Angeh, and the Transfiguration from Raphael.* 

Opposite the mosaic of Ananias and Sapphira is the last 
tomb erected in St. Peter's, that of Pius VIII., Francesco 
Castiglione (1829 — 31), by Tenerani. It represents the pope 
kneeling, and above him the Saviour in benediction, with 
SS. Peter and Paul. It is of no great merit. 

The Cappella Clementina has the Miracle of St. Gregory 
the Great from the Andrea Sacchi at the Vatican. Close to 

* This mosaic occupied ten men constantly for nine years, and cost 60,000 francs. 

2 M 



524 WALKS IN ROME, 

this is the fine tomb of Pius VII., Gregorio Chiaramonte 
(1800 — 27,), who crowned Napoleon, — -who suffered exile for 
seven years for refusing to abdicate the temporal power, — 
and who returned in triumph to die at the Quirinal, after 
having re-established the Order of the Jesuits. His monu- 
ment is the work of J7iorwaldsen, graceful and simple, though 
perhaps too small to be in proportion to the neighbouring 
tombs. The figure of the pope, a gentle old man (he died at 
the age of eighty-one, having reigned twenty-three years), is 
seated in a chair ; figures of Courage and Faith adorn the 
pedestal. The tomb was erected by Cardinal Gonsalvi, the 
faithful friend and minister of this pope (who died very poor, 
having spent all .his wealth in charity), at an expense of 
27,000 scudi. 

Turning into the left aisle, — on the right is the tomb of 
Leo XL, Alessandro de Medici (1605), to which one is 
inclined to grudge so much space, considering that the pope 
it commemorates only reigned twenty-six days. The tomb, 
in allusion to this short life, is sculptured Avith flowers, and 
bears the motto, Sic Florui. It is the work of Algardi. 
The figures of Wisdom and Abundance, which adorn the . 
pedestal, are fine specimens of this allegorical type. 

Opposite, is the tomb of Innocent XI., Benedetto Odes- 
calchi (1676 — 89), by Etietme Monot, with a bas-relief repre- 
senting the raising of the siege of Vienna by King John 
Sobieski. 

Near this, is the entrance to the Cappella del Coro, the 
very inconvenient chapel (decorated with gilding and stucco 
by Giacomo della Porta), in which the vesper services are 
held. The altar-piece is a mosaic copy of the Conception 
by Pietro Bianchi at the AngeH. In the pavement is the 
gravestone of Clement XL, Giov. Francesco Albani (1700 — • 

Under the next arch of the aisle, on the left, is the inter- 
esting tomb of Innocent VIIL, Gio. Battista Cib6 (1484— 
92), by Pietro and Antonio Pollajuolo. The pope is repre- 
sented asleep upon his sarcophagus, and a second time above, 
seated on a throne, his right hand extended in benediction, 
and his left holding the sacred lance of Longinus (said to 
have been that which pierced the side of our Saviour), sent 
to him by the sultan Bajazet. It is supposed that it was 
owing to the representation of this relic, that this tomb alone 



TOMBS OF THE STUARTS. 525 

(except that of Sixtus IV., uncle of the destroyer), was 
replaced after the destruction of the old basilica. IFpon 
the sarcophagus of the pope is inscribed, in allusion to the 
name of Innocent, the nth verse of the 26th Psalm, "In 
innocentia mea ingressus sum, redime me Domine et 
miserere mei." Opposite, is a tomb which is a kind of 
Memento Mori to the living pope, which always bears the 
name of his predecessor, and in which his corpse will be 
deposited, till his rea/ tomb is prepared. " This tomb is 
now empty, and awaits its prey, Pius IX." ^ 

Passing the Cappella della Presentazione, which contains 
a mosaic from the " Presentation of the Virgin," by Roma- 
fielli, we reach the last arch, which contains the tombs of the 
Stuarts. On the right is the monument, by Filippo Barigioni^ 
of Maria Clementina Sobieski, wife of James III., called 
in the inscription " Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ire- 
land" ; on the left is that by Canova to the three Stuart 
princes, James III. and his sons, Charles Edward, and 
Henry — Cardinal York. It bears this inscription : 

**JACOBOIII. 

JACOBI II,, MAGN^ BRIT . REGIS FILIO 

KAROLO EDOARDO 

ET HENRICO, DECANO PATRUM 

CARDINALIUM, 

JACOBI III. FILIIS, 

REGI^ STIP.PIS STVARDI^ POSTREMIS 

ANNO MDCCCXIX 

BEATI MORTUI QUI IN DOMINO MORIUNTUR." 

*' George IV., fidele a sa reputation du gentlejnan le plus accompli 
des trois royaumes, a voulu honorer la cendi'e des princes malheureux 
que de leur vivant il,eut envoyes a I'echafaud s'ils fussent tombes en son 
jx>uvoir." —Stendhal. 

"Beneath the unrivalled dome of St. Peter's, lie mouldering the 
remains of what was once a brave and gallant heart ; and a stately 
monument from the chisel of Canova, and at the charge, as I believe, 
of the house of Hanover, has since arisen to the memory of Jatnes the 
Third, Charles the Third, and Henry the Ninth, Kings of England, — 
names which an Englishman can scarcely read without a smile or a sigh ! 
Often at the present day does the British traveller turn from the sunny 
crest of the Pincian, or the carnival throng of the Corso, to gaze, in 
thoughtful silence, on that mockery of human greatness, and that last 
record of ruined hopes ! The tomb before him is of a race justly ex- 
pelled ; the magnificent temple that enshrines it is of a faith wisely 
reformed ; yet who at such a moment would liiirshly remember the 

• Gregorovius. 



526 WALKS IN ROME. 

errors of either, and might not join in the prayer even of that erring 
Church for the departed, ' Requiescant in pace.' " — Lord Mahon. 

The last chapel is the Baptistery, and contains, as a font, 
the ancient porphyry cover of the sarcophagus of Hadrian, 
which was afterwards used for the tomb of the Emperor 
Otho IL The mosaic of the Baptism of our Saviour is 
from Carlo Maratta. 

Distributed around the whole basilica are confessionals 
for every Christian tongue. 

"Au milieu de toutes les creations hardies et splendides de I'art 
dans le basilique de St. Pierre, il est une impression morale qui saisit 
I'esprit, a la vue des confessionaux des diverses langues. II y a la encore 
une autre espece de grandeur." — A. Du Pays. 

The Crypt of St. Peter's can always be visited by gentle- 
men, on application in the sacristy ; but by ladies only widi 
a special permission. The entrance is near the statue of 
Sta. Veronica. The visitor is terribly hurried in his inspec- 
tion of this, the most historically interesting part of the 
basilica, and the works of art it contains are so ill-arranged, 
as to be difificult to investigate or remember. The crypt is 
divided into two portions, the Grotte Niiove, occupying the 
area beneath the dome, and opening into some ancient 
lateral chapels, — and the Grotte Vecchie, which extended 
under the whole nave of the old basilica, and reaches as far 
as the Cappella del Coro of the present edifice. 

The first portion entered is a corridor in the Grotte 
Nuove. Hence open, on the right, two ancient chapels. 
The first, Sta. Maria in Portico, derives its name from a 
picture of the Virgin, attributed to Siuione Menwii, which 
stood in the portico of the old basilica ; it contains, 
besides several statues from the magnificent monument of 
Nicholas V., which perished with the old church, a statue 
of St. Peter which stood in the portico, and the cross which 
crowned its summit. The second chapel, Sta. Maria delle 
Partorienti, has a mosaic of our Saviour in benediction, 
from the tomb of Otho H. ; a mosaic of the Virgin, of the 
eighth century ; several ancient inscriptions ; and, at the 
entrance, statues of the two apostles James, from the tomb 
of Nicholas V. Behind this chapel were preserved the 
remains of Leo H., HI., and IX., till they were removed to 
the upper church by Leo XH. 

Entering the Grotte Vccchie^ we find a nave and aisles 



CRYPT OF ST. PETER'S. 527 

separated by pilasters with low arches. Follo\ving the south 
aisle we are first arrested by the marble inscription relating 
to the donation of lands made by the Countess Matilda to 
the church in 1102. Near this is the small CapptUa del 
Salvatore, containing a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child by 
Arnolfo, which once decorated the tomb of Boniface VIII., 
— and the grave of Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus, who died in 
1487. Near this are the sepulchral urns of the three Stuart 
princes, commemorated in the upper church. At the end of 
this aisle is the tomb of the Emperor Otho II., who died at. 
Rome in a.d. 983 ; this formerly stood in the portico of 
the basilica. 

Here is the empty tomb of Alexander VI., Rodrigo Bor- 
gia (1492 — 1503), the wicked and avaricious father of Caesar 
and Lucretia, who is believed to have died of the poison 
which he intended for one of his cardinals. The body of 
this pope was not allowed to rest in peace. Julius II., the 
bitter enemy of the Borgias, turned it out of its tomb, and 
had it carried to S. Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, whence, when 
that church was pulled down, it was taken to Sta. Maria di 
Monserrato. The empty sarcophagus is surmounted by the 
figure of Alexander, who was himself a handsome old man, 
and in whose features may be traced the lineaments of the 
splendid Caesar Borgia, known to us from the picture in 
the Borghese Palace. 

At the end of the central nave is the sarcophagus of Chris- 
tina of Sweden, who has a monument in the upper church. 

The first tomb in the south aisle, beginning from the 
west, is that of Boniface VIII., Benedetto Gaetani (1294 — • 
1303). 

"The last prince of the Church, who understood the papacy in the 
sense of universal dominion, in the spirit of Gregory VII., of Alexander 
and Innocent III. Two kings held the bridle of his palfrey as he rode 
from St. Peter's to the Lateran after his election. He received Dante 
as the ambassador of Florence ; in 1300 he instituted the jubilee ; and 
his reign — filled with contests with Philip le Bel of France and the 
Colonnas — ended in his being taken prisoner in his palace at Anagni 
by Sciarra Colonna and William of Nogaret, and subjected to the most 
cruel indignities. He was rescued by his fellow-citizens and conducted 
to Rome by the Orsini, but he died thirty seven days after of grief and 
mortification. The Ghibelline story relates that he sate alone silently 
gnawing the top of his staff, and at length dashed out his brains against 
the wall, or smothered himself with his own pillows. But the contem- 
porary verse of the Cardinal St. George describes him as dying quietly 



528 WALKS IN ROME. 

in the midst of his cardinals, at peace with the world, and having re- 
ceived all the consolations of the Church." — See Milmaii' s Latin Chris- 
tianity^ vol. V. 

The character of Boniface has ever been one of the 
battlefields of history. He was scarcely dead when the 
epitaph, " He came in like a fox, he ruled hke a lion, he 
died like a dog," was proclaimed to Christendom. He was 
consigned by Dante to the lowest circle of Hell ; yet even 
Dante expressed the universal shock with which Christen- 
dom beheld " the Fleur de lis enter Anagni, and Christ 
again captive in his Vicar, — the mockery, the gall and 
vinegar, the crucifixion between living robbers, the cruelty 
of the second Pilate." In later times, Tosti, Drumann, 
and lastly, Cardinal Wiseman, have engaged in his de- 
fence. 

Boniface VIII. was buried with the utmost magnificence 
in a splendid chapel, which he had built himself, and 
adorned with mosaics, and where a grand tomb was erected 
to him. Of this nothing remains now, but the sarcophagus, 
which bears a majestic figure of the pope by Arnolfo dec 
Canibio. 

**The head is unusually beautiful, severe and noble in its form, and 
corresponds perfectly with the portrait which we have (at the Lateran) 
from the hand of Giotto, which represents his face as beardless and of 
the most perfect oval. His head is covered by a long, pointed mitre, 
like a sugar-loaf, decked with two crowns. This proud man was indeed 
the first who wore the double crown, — all his predecessors having been 
content with a simple crowned mitre. This new custom existed till the 
time of Urban V., by whom the third crown was added." — Gregorovius^ 
Gi-abindler der Pdpste. 

Close to that of Boniface are the sarcophagi of Pius II., 
yEneas Sylvius Piccolomini (1458 — 64) and Pius III., An- 
tonio Todeschini Piccolomini (1503), whose monuments are 
removed to S. Andrea della Valle. 

Next beyond Boniface is the tomb of 'Adrian IV. 
(Nicholas Breakspeare, 1 154 — 59), the only EngUshman who 
ever occupied the papal throne.* He is buried in a pagan 
sarcophagus of red granite, adorned'with Medusa heads in 
relief, and without any inscription. 

Opposite this, is a sarcophagus bearing the figure of 
Nicholas V., Tomaso di Sarzana(i447 — 55), being nearly all 

* He had been bibhop of St. Alban's, and a missionary for the conversion of 
Norway: 



CRYPT OF ST. PETER'S. 529 

that has been preserved of the glorious tomb of that pope, 
who founded the Vatican Hbrary, collected around him a 
court of savants and poets, and " with whom opened the 
age of papacy to which belonged the times of Julius II. and 
Leo X." His epitaph, attributed to Pius II., is by his 
secretary Mafeo Vegio. 

"The bones of Nicholas V. rest in this grave, 
Who gave to thee, O Rome ! thy golden age. 
Famous in council, more famous in shining virtue, 
He honoured wise men, who was himself the wisest ofall. 
He gave healing to the world, long wounded with schism, 
And renewed at once its manners and customs, and the buildings and 

temples of the city. 
He gave an altar to St. Bernardino of Siena 
When he celebrated the holy year of jubilee. 
He crowned witli gold the forehead of Frederick and his wife. 
And gave order to the affairs of Italy by the treaty which he made. 
He translated many Greek writings into the Latin tongue ; — 
Then offer incense to-day at his holy grave." 

Next comes a remnant of the tomb of Paul II., Pietro 
Barbo (1464 — 71), chiefly remarkable for his personal 
beauty, of which he was so vain, that when he issued from 
the conclave as pope, he wished to take the name of 
Formosus. This pontiff built the Palazzo S. Marco, and 
gave a name to the Corso, by establishing the races there. 
He also prepared for himself one of the most splendid 
tombs in the old basilica, for which he obtained Mino da 
Fiesole as an architect. It was his wish to lie in the por- 
phyry sarcophagus of Sta. Costanza, which he stole from her 
church for this purpose ; hence the simplicity of the existing 
sarcophagus, which bears his efligy. Beyond this, are sarco- 
phagi of Julius III., Gio. Maria Ciocchi del Monte (1550 — • 
55), builder of the Villa Papa Giulio ; and Nicholas III., 
Orsini (1277 — 81), who made a treaty with Rudolph of 
Hapsburg, and obtained from him a ratification of the dona- 
tion of the Countess Matilda. Then comes the sarcophagus 
of Urban VI., Bartolomeo Prignani (1378 — 87), the sole relic 
of a most magnificent tomb of this cruel pope, who is 
believed to have died of poison. It bears his figure, and 
in the front, a bas-relief of him receiving the keys from St. 
Peter. His epitaph runs : 

" Here rests the just, wise, and noble prince. 
Urban VI., a native of Naples. 
He, full of zeal, gave a safe refuge to the teachers of the faith. 



530 WALKS IN ROME. 

That gained for him, noble one, a fatal poison cup at the close of 

the repast. 
Great was the schism, but great was his courage in opposing it. 
And in the presence of this mighty pope Simony sate dumb. 
But it is needless to reiterate his praises upon earth, 
While heaven is shining with his immortal glory. 

'* Sepelitur in beati Petri Basilica, paucis admodum ejus mortem, 
utpote hominis rustici et inexorabilis, flentibus. Hujus autem se- 
pulchrum adhuc visitur cum epitaphio satis rustic© et inepto." — 
Flathia. 

Next come the sarcophagi of Innocent VII., Cosmato de 
Miliorati (1404 — 6), bearing his figure ; of Marcellus II., 
Marcello Cervini (1555), who only reigned twenty-five days ; 
and of Innocent IX., Giov. Antonio Facchinetti (1591 — 92), 
who reigned only sixty. 

Near these is the urn of Agnese Gaetani Colonna, the 
only lady not of royal birth buried in the basilica. 

Hence we return to the corridor of the Grotte Nuove, 
containing a number of mosaics and statues detached from 
different papal tombs, the best being those from that of Ni- 
cholas V. and that of Paul II., by Mi?io da Fiesok{z. figure of 
Charity is especially "beautiful), and a bas-relief of th^ Virgin 
and Child, by Amolfo, from the tomb of Benedict VIII. 

Here also are a half-length statue of Boniface VIII., 
ascribed to Andrea Pisaiio ; a half-length of Benedict XII., 
by Paolo di Siena; and a figure of St. Peter seated on a 
gothic throne which once supported a statue of Benedict 
XII. 

The Chapel of St. Longinus has a mosaic from a picture 
by Andrea Sacchi. Near the entrance of the shrine are 
marble reliefs of the mart)Tdoms of St. Peter and St. Paul. 
Opposite to the entrance of the shrine is the magnificent 
sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Christian prefect of Rome, 
who died a.d. 359. It was discovered near its present site 
in 1595. It is adorned with admirable sculptures from the 
Old and New Testament. 

Opening from the centre of the circular passage is the 
Cojtfession or Shrine of SS. Peter and Paul, which contains 
the sarcophagus brought from the Catacomb near S. Sebas- 
tian© in 257, and which the Roman Catholic Church has 
always revered as that of St. Peter. On the altar, conse- 
crated in 1 122, are two ancient pictures of St. Peter and 
St. Paul. Only half the bodies of the saints are held to be 



DOME OF ST. PETER'S. 531 

preserved here, the other portion of that of St. Peter being 
at the Lateran, and of St. Paul at S. Paolo fuori Mura. 

To the Roman Catholic mind this is naturally one of the 
most sacred spots in the world, since it holds literally the 
words of St. Ambrose, that : " Where Peter is, there is the 
Church, — and where the Church is, there is no death, but 
life eternal." * 

' ' From this place Peter, from this place Paul, shall be caught up in 
the resurrection. Oh consider with trembling that which Rome will 
behold, when Paul suddenly rises with Peter from this sepulchre, and 
is carried up into the air to meet the Lord." — St. John Chrysostom, 
Homily on the Ep. to the Romans. 

"Among the cemeteries ascribed by tradition to apostolic times, the 
crypts of the Vatican would have the first claim on our attention, had 
they not been almost destroyed by the foundations of the vast basilica 
which guards the tomb of St. Peter. . . . The Liber Pontificalis 
says that Anacletus, the successor of Clement in the Apostolic See, 
' built and adorned the sepulchral monument {construxit fnemoriam) of 
blessed Peter, since he had been ordained priest by St. Peter, and other 
burial-places where the bishops might be laid.' It is added that he 
himself was buried there ; and the same is recorded of Linus and 
Cletus, and of Evaristus, Sixtus L, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius L, 
Eleutherius, and Victor, the last of whom was buried A.D. 203 ; and 
after St. Victor, no other pontiff is recorded to have been buried at the 
Vatican until Leo the Great was laid in St. Peter's, A. d. 461. The 
idea conveyed by the words construxit meinoriam is that of a monument 
above-ground according to the usual Roman custom ; and we have seen 
that such a monument, even though it covered the tomb of Christian 
bishops, would not be likely to be disturbed at any time during the first 
or second century. For the reason we have already stated, it is impos- 
sible to confront these ancient notices with any existing monuments. It 
is worth mentioning, however, that De Rossi believes that the sepulchre 
of St. Linus was discovered in this very place early in the seventeenth 
century, bearing simply the name of Linus. " — Northcote a7tdB}'ownlo7v, 
Roma Sotterranea. 

To ascend the Dome of St. Peter's requires a special order. 
The entrance is from the first door in the left aisle, near the 
tomb of Maria-Clementina Sobieski. The ascent is by an 
easy staircase a cordo7ii, the walls of which bear memorial 
tablets of all the royal personages who have ascended it. 
The aspect of the roof is exceedingly curious from tl^ 
number of small domes and houses of workmen with Avhich 
it is studded, — quite a httle village in themselves. A cham- 

* The principal authorities for the fact of St. Peter's being at Rome — so often de- 
nied by uhra-protestants — are : St. Jerome, Catalogus scriptorum ecclesiasticoriim, in 
Petro ; Tertullian, de Prescriptionibus, c. xxxvi. ; and Eusebius, Historia Ecclesias- 
tica, lib. ii. cap. xxiv. 



532 WALKS IN ROME, 

ber in one of the pillars which support the dome contains a 
model of the ancient throne of St. Peter, and a model of 
the church, by Michael Ahgelo and his predecessor, Antonio 
di Sangallo. The dome is 300 feet above the roof, and 613!^ 
feet in circumference. An iron staircase leads thence to the 
ball, which is capable of containing sixteen persons. 

" Cette hauteur fait fremir," dit Beyle, "quand on songe aux 
tremblements de terre qui agitent frequemment I'ltalie, et qu'un instant 
peat vous priver du plus beau monument qui existe. Certainement 
jamais il ne serait releve : nous sommes trop 7'aisonnables.'''' 

" De Brosse raconte que deux moines espagnoles, qui se trouvaient 
dans la boule de St. Pierre lors de la secousse de 1730, eurent une telle 
peur, que I'un d'eux mourut sur la place." — A. Dtt Pays. 

The Sacristy of St. Peter's, which is entered by a grey 
marble door on the left, before turning into the south 
transept, was built by Pius VI., in 1755, from designs of 
Carlo Marchione. It consists of three halls, with a corridor 
adorned with columns and inscriptions from the old church, 
and with statues of SS. Peter and Paul, which stood in front 
of it. The central hall, Sagrestia Comimine.^ is adorned with 
eight fluted pillars of grey marble (bigio) from Hadrian's 
Villa. On the left is the Sagrestia dei Canonici, with the 
Cappella dei Canonici, which has two pictures, the Ma- 
donna and Saints (Anna, Peter, and Paul), by Francesco 
Fe7ini, and the Madonna and Child, GiuUo Ro?7iano. Hence 
opens the Stanza Capitolai-e, containing an interesting rem- 
nant of the many works of Giotto in the old basihca under 
Boniface VIII. (for which he received 3020 gold florins), in 
three panel pictures belonging to the ciborium for the high 
altar ordered by Cardinal Stefaneschi, and representing, — 
Christ with that Cardinal, — the Crucifixion of St. Peter, — 
the Execution of St. Peter, — and on the back of the same 
panel, another picture, in which Cardinal Stefaneschi is 
offering his ciborium to St. Peter. 

"The fragments which are preserved of the painting which Giotto 
executed for the Church of St. Peter cannot fail to make us regret its 
loss. The fragments are treated with a grandeur of style which has led 
Rumohr to suspect that the susceptible imagination of Giotto was 
unable to resist the impression which the ancient mosaics of the 
Christian basilicas must have produced upon him." — Rio. Poetry oj 
CJuHstiaii Art. 

Here also are several fragments of the frescoes (of angels 
and apostles), by Melozzo da Forll, which existed in the 



TREASURY OF S7\ PETER'S:. 533 

former dome of the SS. Apostoli, and of which the finest 
portion is now at the Quirinal Palace. On the right is the 
Sagrestia del Benefiziaii, which contains a picture of the 
Saviour giving the keys to St. Peter, by Muziano, and an 
image called La Madonna della Febbre, which stood in the 
old Sacristy. Opening hence is the Treasury of St. Peter's^ 
containing some ancient jewels, crucifixes, and candelabra, 
by Benvenuto CelHni and Michael Angelo, and, among 
other relics, the famous sacerdotal robe called the Dalma- 
tica di Papa Safi Leone, " said to have been embroidered at 
Constantinople for the coronation of Charlemagne as Em- 
peror of the West, but fixed by German criticism as a pro- 
duction of the twelfth, or the early part of the thirteenth 
century. The emperors, at least, have worn it ever since, 
while serving as deacons at the pope's altar during their 
coronation-mass. " 

"It is a large robe of stiff brocade, falling in broad and unbroken 
folds in front and behind, — broad and deep enough for the Goliath-like 
stature and the Herculean chest of Charlemagne himself. On the 
breast the Saviour is represented in glory, on the back the Transfigura- 
tion, and on the two shoulders Christ administering the Eucharist to the 
Apostles. In each of these last compositions, our Saviour, a stiff but 
majestic figure, stands behind the altar, on which are deposited a chalice 
and a paten or basket containing crossed wafers. He gives, in the one 
case, the cup to St. Paul, in the other the bread to St. Peter, — they do 
not kneel, but bend reverently to receive it ; five other disciples await 
their turn in each instance, — all are standing. 

" I do not apprehend your being disappointed with the Dalmatica di 
San Leone, or your dissenting from my conclusion, that a master, a 
Michael-Angelo I would almost say, then flourished at Byzantium. 

" It was in this Dalmatica — then semee all over with pearls and glit- 
tering in freshness — that Cola di Rienzi robed himself over his armour 
in the sacristy of St. Peter's and thence ascended to the Palace of the 
Popes, after the manner of the Caesars, with sounding trumpets and his 
horsemen following him — his truncheon in his hand and his crown on 
his head — ' terribile e fantastico,' as his biographer describes him — 
to wait upon the Legate." — Loi'd Lindsay's Christian Art, i. 137. 

Above the Sacristy are the Archives of St. Peter's, con- 
taining, among many other ancient MSS., a life of St. 
Ceorge, with miniatures, by Giotto. The entrance to the 
Archivio, at the end of the corridor, is adorned with frag- 
ments of the chains of the ports of Smyrna and Tunis. 
Here, also, is a statue of Pius VI., by Agostino Penfia. 

It is quite worth while to leave St. Peter's by the Porta 
Sta. Marta beneath the tomb of Alexander VII., in order to 



534 WALKS IN ROME. 

examine the exterior of the church from behind, where it 
completely dwarfs all the surrounding buildings. Among 
these are the Church of S. Stefajio, with a fine door com- 
posed of antique fragments, and the dismal Chu?'ch of Sta. 
Marta, which contains several of the Roman weights known 
as " Pietra di Paragone," said to have been used in the 
martyrdoms. Beyond the Sacristy is the pretty little Cime- 
terio del Tedeschi, the oldest of Christian burial-grounds, said 
to have been set apart by Constantine, and filled with earth 
from Calvary. It was granted to the Germans in 1779, by 
Pius VI. Close by is the Church of Sta. Maria della Pietd 
in Campo Santo. 

Not far from hence (in a street behind the nearest colon- 
nade) is the Palazzo del Santo Uffizio — or of the hiquisition. 
This body, for some time past, suppressed everywhere ex- 
cept in the States of the Pope, was established here in 1536 
by Paul III., acting on the advice of Cardinal Caraffa, after- 
wards Paul IV., for inquiry into cases of heresy, and the 
punishment of ecclesiastical oftences. It was by the author- 
ity of the " Holy Office " that the " Index " of prohibited 
books was first drawn up. Paul IV., on his deathbed, sum- 
moned the cardinals to his side, and recommended to them 
this, " Santissimo Tribunale," as he called it, and succeeding 
popes have protected and encouraged it. The character of 
the Inquisition has been much changed from that which it 
bore three hundred years ago ; but even in late years, many 
cases of extreme severity have been reported, — especially 
one of a French bishop cruelly imprisoned for sixteen years 
in one of its dungeons (merely because he had received his 
consecration from a French constitutional prelate), and who 
was only released when its doors were opened in the 
revolution of 1848. 

" Within these walls has been confined for many years a very extra- 
ordinary person — the archbishop of Memphis . . . Pope Leo XII. 
received a letter from the Pacha of Egypt informing his Holiness, that 
he and a large portion of his subjects desired to be received into the 
bosom of the Church of Rome ; and announcing that he and they were 
willing to conform, provided the pope would send out an archbishop, 
with a suitable train of ecclesiastics, and requesting that his Holiness 
would do him the favour of appointing a certain young student whom he 
named, the fii-st archbishop of Memphis, and despatch him to Egypt. 
No doubt was entertained as to the truth of this communication, but an 
objection presented itself in the youth of the ecclesiastical student whom 
the Pacha wished to have as his archbishop. The pope consulted his 



THE INQUISITION. 535 

cardinals, who advised him not to make the dangerous precedent of 
raising a novice to so high a rank in the Church, but his HoHness, 
tempted by the desire of converting a kingdom to Christianity, resolved 
to conform to the wishes of the Pacha, and did consecrate the youth 
archbishop of Memphis. The archbishop was sent out attended by a 
train of priests to Egypt. When the ship arrived, the authorities in 
Egypt declared the affair was an imposition. His Grace confessed the 
fraud, was arrested, and reconducted to Rome. He was the author of 
the letter which imposed on the pope — his original intention having 
been to confess to the pope as a priest, after his consecration, the impo- 
sition he had practised ; and as the pope could not betray a secret im- 
parted to him at the confessional, the offender might have obtained 
absolution, and escaped punishment. Whether this would have been 
practicable I know not ; but it was not accomplished, and as the youth 
had the rank of archbishop indelibly imprinted on him, nothing remained 
but to confine his Grace for the remainder of his life ; and accordingly 
he was confined to this prison near the Vatican, whence he may find it 
difficult to escape." — Whiteside's Italy, i860. 

The tribunal of the Inquisition was formally abolished by 
the Roman Assembly in February, 1849, but was re-estab- 
lished by Pius IX. in the following June. Its meetings, 
however, now take place in the Vatican, and the old palace 
of the Holy Office has been used as a barrack for French 
soldiers. 

In the interior of the building is a lofty hall, with gloomy 
frescoes of Dominican saints, — and many terrible dungeons 
and cells in which the victim is unable to stand upright, 
having their vaulted ceilings Hned with reeds, to deaden 
sound, — but all this is seldom seen. When the people 
rushed into the Inquisition at the revolution, a number of 
human bones were found in these vaults, which so excited 
the popular fury, that an attack on the Dominican convent 
at the Minerv^a was anticipated. Ardent defenders of the 
papacy maintain that these bones had been previously 
transported to the Inquisition from a cemetery, to get up 
a sensation,* 

Built up into the back of this palace is the tribune of the 
Church of S. Salvatorc in Torrmie or in Macello, whose 
foundation is ascribed to Charlemagne (797). Senerano 
(Sette Chiese) supposes that the French had here their 
schola or special centre for worship and assemblage. The 
windows of this building are among the few examples of 
gothic in Rome, and there are good terrra-cotta mouldings. 
It may best be seen from the Porta Cavalleggieri, which was 

* See Hemans' Catholic Italy, vol, i 



536 WALKS IN ROME. 

designed by Sangallo, and derives its name from the cavalry 
barracks close by. 

A short distance from the lower end of the Colonnade 
is the Church of S. Muhaele in Sassia, whose handsome 
tower is a relic of the church founded by Leo IV., who 
built the walls of the Borgo, especially for funeral masses 
for the souls of those who fell in its defence against the 
Saracens. Raphael Mengs is buried in the modem church. 

The name of this church commemorates the Saxon settle- 
ment "called Burgus Saxonum, Vicus Saxonum, Schola 
Saxonum, and simply Saxia or Sassia/' * founded c. 727 by 
Ina, king of Wessex, and enlarged in 794 by Offa, king of 
Mercia, when he made a pilgrimage to Rome in penance for 
the murder of Ethelbert, king of East-Anglia. Ina founded 
here a church, " Sta. Maria quae vocatur Schola Saxorum," 
which is mentioned as late as 854. Dyer (Hist, of the City 
of Rome) says that " when Leo IV. enclosed this part of 
the city, it obtained the name of Borgo, from the Burgus 
Saxonum, and one of the gates was called Saxonum Posterula, 
The ' Schola Francorum ' was also in the Borgo." 



CHAPTER XVI. 
THE VATICAN. 



History of the Vatican Quarter and of the Palace — Scala Regia — Pauline 
Chapel — Sistine Chapel — Sala Ducale — Court of St. Daniasus — 
Galleria Lapidaria — Braccio Nuovo — Museo Chiaramonti — The 
Belvedere — Gallery of Statues — Hall of Busts — Sala delle Muse — 
Sala Rotonda — Sala a Croce Greca — Galleria dei Candelabri — 
Galleria degli Arazzi— Library — Appartamenti Boigia — Etruscan 
Museum — Egyptian Museum — Gardens — Villa Pia — Loggie — 
Stanze— Chapel of S. Lorenzo — Gallery of Pictures. 

THE hollow of the Janiculum between S. Onofrio and the 
Monte Mario is believed to have been a site of Etrus- 
can divination. 

'* Fauni vatesque canebant." 

Eimius. 

* See Dyer's Hist, of the City of Rome, p. 358. 



HISTORY OF THE VATICAN, 537 

Hence the name, which is now only used in regard to the 
papal palace and the basilica of St. Peter, but which was 
once applied to the whole district between the foot of the 
hill and the Tiber near S. Angelo. 

" . . . ut patemi 
Fluminis ripae, simul et jocosa 
Redderet laudes tibi Vatican! 

Montis imago." 

Horace, i. Od. 20. 

Tacitus speaks of the unwholesome air of this quarter. In 
this district was the Circus of Caligula, adjoining the gardens 
of his mother Agrippina, decorated by the obelisk which 
now stands in the front of St. Peter's.* Here Seneca de- 
scribes that while Caligula was walking by torchlight, he 
amused himself by the slaughter of a number of distinguished 
persons — senators and Roman ladies. Afterwards it became 
the Circus of Nero, who from his adjoining gardens used 
to watch the martyrdom of the Christians f — mentioned by 
Suetonius as '"'a race given up to a new and evil super- 
stition" — and who used their living bodies, covered with 
pitch and set on fire, as torches for his nocturnal pro- 
menades. 

The first residence of the popes at the Vatican was erected 
by St. Symmachus (a.d. 498 — 514) near the forecourt of the 
old St. Peter's, and here Charlemagne is believed to have 
resided on the occasion of his several visits to Rome during 
the reigns of Adrian I. (772 — 795) and Leo IH. (795 — 816). 
This ancient palace having fallen into decay during the twelfth 
century, it was rebuilt in the thirteenth by Innocent III. 
It was greatly enlarged by Nicholas III. (1277 — 1281), but 
the Lateran continued to be the papal residence, and the 
Vatican palace was only used on state occasions, and for 
the reception of any foreign sovereigns visiting Rome. After 
the return of the popes from Avignon, the Lateran palace 
had fallen into decay, and for the sake of the greater secur- 
ity afforded by the vicinity of S. Angelo, it was determined 
to make the pontifical residence at the Vatican, and the first 
conclave was held there in 1378. In order to increase its 
security, John XXIII. constructed the covered passage to 
S. Angelo in 1410. Nicholas V. (1447 — 1455) had the idea 
of making it the most magnificent palace in the world, 

♦ Pliny, xxxv. 15. t Tac. Ann. xv. 44. 



538 JVALJCS IN- ROME. 

and of uniting in it all the government offices and dwell- 
ing of the cardinals, but died before he could do more 
than begin the work. The building which he commenced 
was finished by Alexander VI., and still exists under the 
name of Tor di Borgia. In 1473 Sixtus IV. built the Sistine 
Chapel, and in 1490 "the Belvedere" was erected as a 
separate garden-house by Innocent VIII. from designs of 
Antonio da PoUajuolo. Julius II., with the aid of Bramante, 
united this villa to the palace by means of one vast court- 
yard, and erected the Loggie around the Court of St. 
Damasus ; he also laid the foundation of the Vatican 
Museum in the gardens of the Belvedere. The Loggie were 
completed by Leo X. ; the Sala Regia and the Pauline 
Chapel were built by Paul III. Sixtus V. divided the great 
court of Bramante into two by the erection of the library, 
and began the present residence of the popes, which was 
finished by Clement VIII. (1592 — 1605). Urban VIII. 
built the Scala Regia; Clement XIV. and Pius VII., the 
Museo Pio-Clementino ; Pius VII., the Braccio Nuovo ; 
Leo XII., the picture-gallery; Gregory XVI., the Etruscan 
Museum ; and Pius IX., the handsome staircase leading to 
the court of Bramante. 

The length of the Vatican palace is 1151 English feet ; its 
breadth, 767. It has eight grand staircases, twenty courts, 
and is said to contain 11,000 chambers of different sizes. 

(The collections in the Vatican may be visited daily from 9 till 3, 
except on Sundays and high festivals. On Monday, from 12 till 3, they 
are open gratis, except the picture-gallery, which is then closed. Per- 
mission to make drawings must be obtained from the maggiordomo. ) 



The principal entrance of the Vatican is at the end of the 
right colonnade of St. Peter's. Hence a door on the right 
opens upon the staircase leading to the Cortile di S. Da- 
maso, and is the nearest way to the collections of statues 
and pictures. 

Following the great corridor, and passing on the left the 
entrance to the portico of St. Peter's, we reach the Scala 
Regia, a magnificent work of Bernini, guarded by the pic- 
turesque Swiss soldiers. Hence we enter the Sa/a Regia, 
built in the reign of Paul III. by Antonio di Sangallo, and 
used as a hall of audience for amJoassadors. It is decorated 
with frescoes illustrative of the history of the popes. 



SAL A REGIA. 539 

Entrance Wall : 

Alliance of the Venetians with Paul V. against the Turks, and 
Battle of Lepanto, 1 571 : Vasari. 

Right Wall : 

Absolution of the Emperor Henry IV., by Gregory VII. : 
Federigo and Taddeo Ziicchero, 
Left Wall : 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew : Vasari. 
Opposite Wall, towards the Sala Regia : 
Return of Gregor)'- XI. from Avignon. 

Benediction of Frederick Barbarossa by Alexander III., in 
the Piazza of S. Marco : Giuseppe Porta. 

On the right is the entrance of the Pauline Chapel (Cap- 
pella Paolina), also built (1540) by Antonio di Sangallo for 
Paul III. Its decorations are chiefly the work of Sabbati7ii 
and F. Zucche^'o^ but it contains two frescoes by Michael 
Angelo. 

"Two excellent frescoes, executed by Michael Angelo on 'the side 
walls of the Pauline Chapel, are little cared for, and are so much black- 
ened by the smoke of lamps that they are seldom mentioned. The 
Crucifixion of St. Peter, under the large window, is in a most unfavour- 
able light, but is distinguished for its grand, severe composition. That 
on the opposite wall — the Conversion of St. Paul — is still tolerably 
distinct. The long train of his soldiers is seen ascending in the back- 
ground. Christ, surrounded by a host of angels, bursts upon his sight 
from the storm-flash. Paul lies stretched on the ground — a noble and 
finely-developed form. His followers fly on all sides, or are struck 
motionless by the thunder. The arrangement of the groups is excellent, 
and some of the single figures are very dignified ; the composition has, 
moreover, a principle of order and repose, which, in comparison with the 
Last Judgment, places this picture in a very favourable light. If there 
are any traces of old age to be found in these works, they are at most 
discoverable in the execution of details." — Ktigler^ p. 308. 

On the left of the approach from the Scala Regia is the 
Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina), built by Bacio Pintelli in 
1473 for Sixtus IV. The lower part of the walls of this 
wonderful chapel was formerly hung on festi\'als with the 
tapestries executed from the cartoons of Raphael ; the upper 
portion is decorated in fresco by the great Florentine masters 
of the fifteenth century. 

** It was intended to represent scenes from the life of Moses on one 
side of the chapel, and from the life of Christ on the other, so that the 
old law might be confronted by the new, — the type by the typified." — 
La7izi. 

The following is the order of the frescoes, type and anti- 
type together : ^ 

''** 2 N 



540 



WALKS IN ROME. 



Over the altar — now destroyed to make way for the Last Judgment : 
I. Moses in the Bulrushes: I I. Christ in the Manger: 

Pej'Ugino. \ Perugijio. 

(Between these was the Assumption of the Virgin, in which Pope 
Sixtus IV. was introduced, kneeling: Perugino.^ 



On the left wall, still existing : 

2. Moses and Zipporah on 
the way to Egypt, and the cir- 
cumcision of their son : Ltica 
Signorelli. 

3. Moses killing the Egyptian, 
and driving away the shepherds 
from the well : Saitdro Botti- 
celli. 

4. Moses and the Israelites, 
after the passage of the Red Sea : 
Cosimo Rossclli. 

5. Moses giving the Law 
from the Mount : Cosimo Ros- 
selli. 

6. The punishment of Korah, 
Dathan, and Abiram, who as- 
pired uncalled to the priesthood : 
Sandi'o Botticelli. 

7. The last interview of Moses 
and Joshua : Lttca Signorelli. 



On the right waU, still existing , 
2. The Baptism of Christ ; 
Perugino. 



3. The Temptation of Christ 
Sandro Botticelli. 



4^ The calling of the Apostles 
on the Lake of Gennesareth ; 
Domenico Ghirlaudajo. 

5. Christ's Sermon on the 
Mount : Cosimo Rossclli. 

6. The institution of the 
Christian Priesthood. Christ 
giving the keys to Peter : 
Perugino. 

7. The Last Supper : Cosimo 
Rossclli. 



On the entrance wall 



8. Michael bears away the 
body of Moses (Jude 9) : 
Cecckino Salviati. 



8. The Resurrection : Dc>- 
menico Ghirlandajo, restored by 
Arrigo Flamingo. 



On the pillars between the windows are the figures of 
twenty-eight popes, by Sandro Botticelli. 

** Vasari says that the two works of Luca Signorelli surpass in beauty 
all those which surround them, — an assertion which is at least question- 
able as far as regards the frescoes of Perugino ; but with respect to all 
the rest, the superiority of Signorelli is evident, even to the most inex- 
perienced eye. The subject of the first picture is the journey of Moses 
and Zipporah into Egypt : the landscape is charming, although evidently 
ideal ; there is great depth in the aerial perspective ; and in the various 
groups scattered over the different parts of the picture there are female 
forms of such beauty, that they may have afforded models to Raphael. 
The same graceful treatment is also perceptible in the representation of 
the death of Moses, the mournful details of which have given scope to the 
poetical imagination of the artist. The varied group to whom Moses 
has just read the Law for the last time, the sorrow of Joshua, who is 
kneeling before the man of God, the charming landscape, with the river 
Jordan threading its way between the mountains, which are made singu- 



SISTINE CHAPEL. ' 541 

larly beautiful, as if to explain the regrets of Moses when (he angel an- 
nounces to him that he will not enter into the pronJsed land— all form a 
series of melancholy scenes perfectly in harmony with one another, the 
only defect being that the whole is crowded into too small a space." — 
Jiio. Poetry of Christian Art. 

The avenue of pictures is a preparation for the surpassing 
grandeur of the ceiling : 

" The r^///«^ of the Sistine Chapel contains the most perfect works 
done by Alichael Aiigelo in his long and active life. Here his great 
spirit appears in its noblest dignity, in its highest purity ; here the at- 
tention is not disturbed by that arbitrary display to which his great 
power not unfrequently seduced him in other works. The ceiling forms 
a flattened arch in its section ; the central portion, which is a plain sur- 
face, contains a series of large and small pictures, representing the most 
important events recorded in the book of Genesis — the Creation and 
Fall of Man, with its immediate consequences. In the large triangular 
compartments at the springing of the vault, are sitting figures of the 
prophets and sibyls, as the foretellers of the coming of the Saviour. In 
the soffits of the recesses between these compartments, and in the arches 
underneath, immediately above the windows, are the ancestors of the 
Virgin, the series leading the mind directly to the Saviour. The ex- 
ternal connection of these numerous representations is formed by an 
architectural framework of peculiar composition, which encloses the 
single subjects, tends lo make the principal masses conspicuous, and 
gives to the whole an appearance of that solidity and support so neces- 
sary, but so seldom attended to, in soffit decorations, which may be con- 
sidered as if suspended. A great number of figures are also connected 
with the framework ; those in unimportant situations are executed in the 
colour of stone or bronze ; in the more important, in natural colours. 
These serve to support the architectural forms, to fill up and to connect 
the whole. They may be best described as the living and embodied 
genii of architecture. It required the unlimited power of an architect, 
sculptor, and painter, to conceive a structural whole of so much 
grandeur, to design the decoi"ative figures with the significant repose 
required by the sculpturesque character, and yet to preserve their sub- 
ordination to the principal subjects, and to keep the latter in the pro- 
portions and relations best adapted to the space to be filled." — Kugler, 
p. 301. 

The pictures from the Old Testament, beginning from the 
altar, are : 

1. The Separation of Light and Darkness. 

2. The Creation of the Sun and Moon. 

3. The Creation of Trees and Plants. 

4. The Creation of Adam. 

5. The Creation of Eve. 

6. The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise. 

7. The Sacrifice of Noah. 

8. The Deluge. 

9. The Intoxication of Noah. 



542 WALKS IN ROME. 

"The scenes from Genesis are the most sublime representations of these 
subjects ; — the Creating Spirit is unveiled before us. The peculiar type 
which the painter has here given of the form of the Almighty Father has 
been frequently imitated by his followers, and even by Raphael, but has 
been surpassed by none. Michael Angelo has represented him in ma- 
jestic flight, sweeping through the air, surrounded by genii, partly sup- 
porting, partly borne along with him, covered by his floating drapery ; 
they are the distinct syllables, the separate virtues of his creating word. 
In the first (large) compartment we see him with extended hands, as- 
signing to the sun and moon their respective paths. In the second, he 
awakens the first man to life. Adam lies stretched on the verge of the 
earth, in the act of raising himself ; the Creator touches him with the 
point of his finger, and appears thus to endow him with feeling and life. 
This picture displays a wonderful depth of thought in the composition, 
and the utmost elevation and majesty in the general treatment and exe- 
cution. The third subject is not less important, representing the Fall of 
Man and his Expulsion from Paradise. The tree of knowledge stands 
In the midst, the serpent (the upper part of the body being that of a 
woman) is twined around the stem ; she bends down towards the guilty 
pair, who are in the act of plucking the forbidden fruit. The figures are 
nobly graceful, particularly that of Eve. Close to the serpent hovers 
the angel with the sword, ready to drive the fallen beings out of Para- 
dise. In this double action, this union of two separate moments, there 
is something peculiarly poetic and significant : it is guilt and punishment 
in one picture. The sudden and lightning-like appearance of the aveng- 
ing angel behind the demon of darkness has a most impressive effect." — 
A'tigler, p. 304. 

"It was the seed of Eve that was to bruise the serpent's head. Hence 
it is that Michael Angelo made the Creation of Eve the central subject 
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He had the good taste to suggest, 
and yet to avoid, that literal rendering of the biblical story which in the 
ruder representations borders on the grotesque, and which Milton, with 
all his pomp of words, could scaicely idealise." — Mrs. Jameson, Hist, of 
Our Lord. 

The lower portion of the ceiling is divided into triangles 
occupied by the Prophets and Sibyls in solemn contem- 
plation, accompanied by angels and genii. Beginning from 
the left of the entrance, their order is, — 

I. Jonah. 

2. Jeremiah. 1 7. Sibylla Libyca. 

3. Sibylla Persica. 8. Daniel. 

4. Ezekiel. 9. Sibylla Cumaea. 

5. Sibylla Erythraea. 10. Isaiah. 

6. Joel. 1 II. Sibylla Delphica. 

12. Zachariah. 

" The prophets and sibyls in the triangular compartments of the curved 
portion of the ceiling are the largest figures in the whole work ; these, 
too, are among the most wonderful forms that modem art has called into 
life. They are all represented seated, employed with books or rolled 
manuscripts ; genii stand near or behind them. These mighty beings 



SISTI.VE CHAPEL. 543 

sit before us pensive, meditative, inquiring, or looking upwards with 
inspired countenances. Their forms and movements, indicated by the 
grand Hues and masses of the drapery, are majestic and dignified. We 
see in them beings, who, while they feel and bear the sorrows of a cor- 
rupt and sinful world, have power to look for consolation into the secrets 
of the future. Yet the greatest variety prevails in the attitudes and ex- 
pression — each figure is full of individuality. Zacharias is an aged man, 
busied in calm and circumspect investigation ; Jeremiah is bowed down 
absorbed in thought — the thought of deep and bitter grief; Ezekiel 
turns with hasty movement to the genius next to him, who points up- 
wards, with joyful expectation, &c. The sibyls are equally characteristic : 
the Persian — a lofty, majestic woman, very aged ; the Erythraean — full 
of power, like the warrior goddess of wisdom ; the Delphic — like Cas- 
sandra, youthfully soft and graceful, but with strength to bear the awful 
seriousness of revelation." — Kugler, p. 304. 

" The belief of the Roman Catholic Church in the testimony of the 
Sibyl is shown by the well-known hymn, said to have been composed 
by Pope Innocent III. at the close of the thirteenth century, beginning 
with the verse : — 

' Dies irse, dies ilia, 

Sol vet saeclum in favilla, 

Teste David cum Sibylla.' 

It may be inferred that this hymn, admitted into the liturgy of the 
Roman Church, gave sanction to the adoption of the Sibyls into Chris- 
tian art. They are seen from this time accompanying the prophets and 

apostles in the cyclical decorations of the church But 

the highest honour that art has rendered to the Sibyls has been by the 
hand of Michael Angelo, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Here, 
in the conception of a mysterious order of women, placed above and 
without all considerations of the graceful or the individual, the great 
master was peculiarly in his element. They exactly fitted his standard 
of art, not always sympathetic, nor comprehensible to the average 
human mind, of which the grand in form and the abstract in expression, 
were the first and last conditions. In this respect, the Sibyls on the 
Sistine Chapel ceiling are more Michael Angelesque than their com- 
panions the Prophets. For these, while types of the highest monu- 
mental treatment, are yet men, while the Sibyls belong to a distinct 
class of beings, who convey the impression of the very obscurity in 
which their history is wrapt— creatures who have lived far from the 
abodes of men, who are alike devoid of the expression of feminine 
sweetness, human sympathy, or sacramental beauty ; who are neither 
Christians nor Jewesses, Witches nor Graces, yet living, grand, beautiful, 
and true, according to laws revealed to the great Florentine genius only. 
Thus their figures may be said to be unique, as the offspring of a 
peculiar sympathy between the master's mind and his subject. To this 
sympathy may be ascribed the prominence and size given them — both 
Prophets and Sibyls — as compared to their usual relation to the subjects 
they environ. They sit here in twelve throne-like niches, more like 
presiding deities, each wrapt in self-contemplation, than as tributary 
witnesses to the truth and omnipotence of Him they are intended to 
announce. Thus they form a gigantic framework round the subjects of 
the Creation, of which the birth of Eve, as the type of the Nativity, is 



544 WALKS IN ROME. 

the intentional centre. For some reason, the twelve figures are not Pro- 
phets and Sibyls alternately— there being only five Sibyls to seven 
Prophets— so that the Prophets come together at one angle. Books and 
scrolls are given indiscrn-ninately to them. 

" The Sibylla Persica, supposed to be the oldest of the sisterhood, 
holds the book close to her eyes, as if from dimness of sight, which fact, 
contradicted as it is by a frame of obviously Herculean strength, gives 
a mysterious intentness to the action. 

" The Sibylla Libyca, of equally powerful proportions, but less closely 
draped, is grandly wringing herself to lift a massive volume from a height 
above her head on to her knees. 

"The Sibylla Cumana, also aged, and with her head covered, is read- 
ing with her volume at a distance from her eyes. 

"The Sibylla Delphica, with waving hair escaping from her turban, 
is a beautiful young being— the most human of all— gazing into vacancy 
or futurity. JShe holds a scroll. 

"The Sibylla Erythraea, grand bare-headed creature, sits reading in- 
tently with crossed legs, about to turn over her book. 

" The Prophets are equally grand in structure, and though, as we have 
said, not more than men, yet they are the only men that could well bear 
the juxtaposition with their stupendous female colleagues. Ezekiel, be- 
tween Erythraea and Persica, has a scroll in his hand that hangs by his 
side, just cast down, as he turns eagerly to listen to some voice. 

"Jeremiah, a magnificent figure, sits with elbow on knee, and head 
on hand, wrapt in the meditation appropriate to one called to utter 
lamentation and woe. He has neither book nor scroll. 

"Jonah is also without either. His position is strained and ungrace- 
ful — looking upwards, and apparently remonstrating with the Almighty 
upon the destruction of the gourd, a few leaves of which are seen above 
him. His hands are placed together with a strange and trivial action, 
supposed to denote the counting on his fingers the number of days he 
wan in the fish's belly. A formless marine monster is seen at his side. 

" Daniel has a book on his lap, with one hand on it. He is young, 
and a piece of lion's skin seems to allude to his history." — Lady East- 
lake, Hist, of Our Lord, i. 248. 

In the recesses between the prophets and sibyls are a 
series of lovely family groups representing the Genealogy of 
the Virgin, and expressive of calm expectation of the future. 
The four corners of the ceiling contain groups illustrative of 
the power of the Lord displayed in the especial deliverances 
of his chosen people. 

Near the altar are : 

Right. — The deliverance of the Israelites by the brazen serpent. 
Left. — The execution of Haman. 

Near the entrance are : 

Right. — Judith and Holofemes. 
Left. — David and Goliath. 

It was when Michael Angelo was already in his sixtieth 



THE LAST JUDGMENT OF MICHAEL ANGEL.O. 545 

year that Clement VII. formed the idea of effacing the three 
pictures of Perugino at the end of the chapel, and emj^loy- 
ing him to paint the vast fresco of The Last yudgnieiit in 
their place. It occupied the artist for seven years, and was 
finished in 1541 when Paul III. was on the throne. To 
induce him to pursue his work with application, Paul III. 
went himself to his house attended by ten cardinals ; "an 
honour," says Lanzi, " unique in the annals of art." The 
pope wished that the picture should be painted in oil, to 
which he was persuaded by Sebastian del Piombo, but 
Michael Angelo refused to employ anything but fresco, 
saying that oil-painting was work for women and for idle 
and lazy persons. 

"In the upper half of the picture we see the Judge of the worki, 
surrounded by the apostles and patriarchs ; beyond these, on one side, 
are the martyrs ; on the other, the saints, and a numerous host of the 
blessed. Above, under the two arches of the vault, two groups of 
angels bear the instruments of the passion. Below the Saviour another 
group of angels holding the book of life sound the trumpets to awaken 
the dead. On the right is represented the resurrection ; and higher, the 
ascension of the blessed. On the left, hell, and the fall of the con- 
demned, who audaciously strive to press to heaven. 

" The day of wrath ( ' dies irae ' ) is before us — the day, of which the 
old hymn says, — 

' Quantus tremor est futurus, 
Quando judex est venturus 
Cuncta stricte discussurus.' 

The Judge turns in wrath towards the condemned and raises his right 
hand, with an expression of rejection and condemnation ; beside him 
the Virgin veils herself with her drapery, and turns, with a countenance 
full of anguish, toward the blessed. The martyrs, on the left, hold up 
the instruments and proofs of their martyrdom, in accusation of those 
w^ho had occasioned their temporal death : these the avenging angels 
drive from the gates of heaven, and fulfil the sentence pronounced 
against them. Trembling and anxious, the dead rise slowly, as if still 
fettered by the weight of an earthly nature ; the pardoned ascend to the 
blessed ; a mysterious horror pervades even their hosts — no joy, nor 
peace, nor blessedness, are to be found here. 

" It must be admitted that the artist has laid a stress on this view of 
his subject, and this has produced an unfavourable effect upon the upper 
half of his picture. We look in vain for the glory of heaven, for beings 
who bear the stamp of divine holiness, and renunciation of human 
weakness ; everywhere we meet with the expression of human passion, 
of human efforts. We see no choir of solemn, tranquil forms, no har- 
monious unity of clear, grand lines, produced by ideal draperies ; instead 
of these, we find a confused crowd of the most varied movements, naked 
bodies in violent attitudes, unaccompanied by any of the characteristics 
made sacred by holy tradition. Christ, the principal figure cf the 



546 WALKS IN ROME. 

whole, wants eveiy attribute but that of the Judge : no expression of 
divine majesty reminds us that it is the Saviour who exercises this office. 
The upper part of the composition is in many parts heavy, notwith- 
standing the masterly boldness of the drawing ; confused, in spite of 
the separation of the principal and accessory groups ; capricious, not- 
withstanding a grand arrangement of the whole. But, granting for a 
moment that these defects exist, still this upper portion, as a whole, has 
a very impressive effect, and, at the great distance from which it is 
seen, some of the defects alluded to are less offensive to the eye. The 
lower half deserves the highest praise. In these groups, from the 
languid resuscitation and upraising of the pardoned, to the despair of 
the condemned, every variety of expression, anxiety, anguish, rage, and 
despair, is powerfully delineated. In the convulsive struggles of the 
condemned with the evil demons, the most passionate energy displays 
itself, and the extraordinary skill of the artist here finds its most appro- 
priate exercise. A peculiar tragic grandeur pervades alike the beings 
who are given up to despair and their hellish tormentors. The repre- 
sentation of all that is fearful, far from being repulsive, is thus invested 
with that true moral dignity which is so essential a condition in the 
higher aims of art." — Kiigler, p. 308. 

" The Last Judgment is now more valuable as a school of design 
than as a fine painting, and it will be sought more for the study of the 
artist, than the delight of the amateur. Beautiful it is not — but it is 
sublime ;— sublime in conception, and astonishing in execution. Still, 
I believe, there are few who do not feel that it is a labour rather than a 
pleasure to look at it. Its blackened surface — its dark and dingy 
sameness of colouring — the obscurity which hangs over it — the confusion 
and multitude of naked figures which compose it — their unnatural 
position, suspended in the air, and the sameness of form and attitude, 
confound and bewilder the senses. These were, perhaps, defects in- 
separable from the subject, although it was one admirably calculated to 
call forth the powers of Michael Angelo. To merit in colouring it has 
confessedly no pretensions, and I think it is also deficient in expression 
— that in the conflicting passions, hopes, fears, remoi'se, despair, and 
transport, that must agitate the breasts of so many thousands in that 
awful moment, there was room for powerful expression which we do noi 
see here. But it is faded and defaced ; the touches of immortal genius 
are lost for ever ; and from what it is, we can form but a faint idea of what 
it was. Its defects daily become more glaring — its beauties vanish ; and, 
could the spirit of its great author behold the mighty work upon which 
he spent the unremitting labour of seven years, with what grief and 
mortification would he gaze upon it now. 

"It maybe fanciful, but it seems to me that in this, and in every 
other of Michael Angelo's works, you may see that the ideas, beauties, 
and peculiar excellences of statuary, were ever present to his mind ; that 
they are the conceptions of a sculptor embodied in painting. 

. . St. Catharine, in a green gown, and somebody else in a 
blue one, are supremely hideous. Paul IV., in an unfortunate fit of 
prudery, was seized with the resolution of whitewashing over the whole 
of the Last Judgment, in order to cover the scandal of a few naked 
female figures- With difficulty was he prevented from utterly destroying 
the grandest painting in the world, but he could not be dissuaded from 



THE MISERERE. 547 

ordering these poor women to be clothed in this unbecoming drapery. 
Daniele da Volterra, whom he employed in this office (in the lifetime of 
Michael Angelo), received, in consequence, the name of II Braghettone 
(the breeches-maker)." — Eaton s Rome. 

Michael Angelo avenged himself upon Messer Biagio da 
Cesena, master of the ceremonies, who first suggested the 
indelicacy of the naked figures to the pope, by introducing 
him in hell, as Midas, with ass's ears. When Cesena begged 
Paul IV. to cause this figure to be obliterated, the pope 
sarcastically replied, " I might have released you from pur- 
gatory, but over hell I have no power.'' 

" Michel-Ange est extraordinaire, tandis qu'Orcagna* est religieux. 
Leurs compositions se resument dans les deux Christs qui jugent. L'un 
est un bourreau qui foudroie, I'autre est un monarque qui condamne en 
montrant la plaie sacree de son cote pour justifier sa sentence." — Cartier, 
Vie du Pere Atigelico. 

"The Apostles in Michael Angelo's Last Judgment stand on each 
side of the Saviour, who is not, here, Saviour and Redeemer, but 
inexorable Judge. They are grandly and artificially grouped, all with- 
out any drapery whatever, with forms and attitudes which recall an as- 
semblage of Titans holding a council of war, rather than the glorified 
companions of Christ. " — yamesoris Sacred and Legendary Art, i. 179. 

The Sistine Chapel is associated in the minds of all 
Roman sojourners with the great ceremonies of the Church, 
but especially with the Miserere of Passion Week. 

"On Wednesday afternoon began the Miserere in the Sistine Chapel. 
. The old cardinals entered in their magnificent violet-coloured 
velvet cloaks, with their white ermine capes ; and seated themselves 
side by side, in a great half-circle, within the barrier, whilst the priests 
who had carried their trains seated themselves at their feet. By the 
little side door of the altar the holy father now entered in his purple 
flfiantle and silver tiara. He ascended his throne. Bishops swung the 
vessels of incense around him, whilst young priests, in scarlet vestments, 
knelt, with lighted torches in their hands, l)efore him and the high altar. 

"The reading of the lessons began. + But it was impossible to keep 
the eyes fixed on the lifeless letters of the missal — they raised them- 
selves, with the thoughts, to the vast universe which Michael Angelo 
had breathed forth in colours upon the ceiling and the walls. I con- 
templated his mighty sibyls and wondrously glorious prophets, every one 
of them a subject for a painting. My eyes drank in the magnificent 
processions, the beautiful groups of angels ; they were not to me 
painted pictures, all stood living before me. The rich tree of know- 
ledge, from which Eve gave the fruit to Adam : the Almighty God, 
who floated over the waters, not borne up by angels, as the older 

* In the Campo-Santo of Pisa. 

t Fifteen Psalms are sung before the Miserere begins, and one Hght is extinguished 
for each — the Psalms being represented by fifteen candles. 



548 JVALKS IN ROME. 

masters had represented him — no, the company of angels rested upon 
him and his fluttering garments. It is true I had seen these pictures 
before, but never as now had they seized upon me. My excited state of 
mind, the crowd of people, perliaps even the lyric of my thoughts, made 
me v.'onderfully alive to poetical impressions ; and many a poet's heart 
has felt as mine did ! 

"The bold foreshortenings, the determinate force with which every 
figure steps forward, is amazing, and carries one quite away ! It is a 
spiritual Sermon on the Mount in colour and form. Like Raphael, we 
stand in astonishment before the power of Michael Angelo. Every 
prophet is a Moses like that which he formed in marble. What giant 
forms are those which seize upon our eye and our thoughts as we enter ! 
But, when intoxicated with this view, let us turn our eyes to the back- 
ground of the chapel, whose whole wall is a high altar of art and 
thought. The great chaotic picture, from the floor to the roof, shows 
itself there like a jewel, of which all the rest is only the setting. We 
see there the Last Judgment. 

" Christ stands in judgment upon the clouds, and the apostles and his 
mother stretch forth their hands beseeching for the poor human race. 
The dead raise the gravestones under which they have lain ; blessed 
spirits float upwards, adoring, to God, whilst the abyss seizes its victims. 
Here one of the ascending spirits seeks to save his condemned brother, 
whom the abyss already embraces in its snaky folds. The children of 
despair strike their clenched fists upon their brows and sink into the 
depths ! In bold foreshortening, float and tumble whole legions 
between heaven and earth. The sympathy of the angels ; the expres- 
sion of lovers who meet; the child that, at the sound of the trumpet, 
clings to the mother's breast, is so natural and beautiful, that one 
believes oneself to be among those who are waiting for judgment. 
Michael Angelo has expressed in colours what Dante saw and has sung 
to the generations of the earth. 

"The descending sun, at that moment, threw his last beams in 
through the uppermost windows. Christ, and the blessed around him, 
were strongly lighted up ; whilst the lower part, where the dead arose, 
and the demons thrust their boat, laden with damned, from shore, were 
almost in darkness. 

"Just as the sun went down the last Psalm was ended, and the last 
light which now remained was extinguished, and the whole picture- 
world vanished in the gloom from before me; but, in that same 
moment, burst forth music and singing. That which colour had 
bodily revealed arose now in sound : the day of judgment, with its 
despair and its exultation, resounded above us. 

" The father of the Church, stripped of his papal pomp, stood before 
the altar, and prayed to the holy cross ; and upon the wings of the 
trumpet resounded the trembling cjuire, ' Populus mens, quid feci tibi ? ' 
Soft angel notes rose above the deep song, tones which ascended not 
from a human breast : it was not a man's nor a woman's : it b longed 
to the world of spirits : it was like the weeping of angels disso ved in 
mel ody . " — A iuierso7i 's Improvisatore. 

" Le Miserere, c'est-a-dire, ayez pitie de nous, est un psaume compost 
de versets qui se chantent alternativcment d'unc maniere tres-xlifferente. 



THE PAPAL RESIDENCE. 549 

Tour-a-tour une musique celeste se fait entendre, et le verset suivant, dit 
en recitatif, et murniure d'un ton sourd et presque rauque, on dirait que 
c'est la reponse des caracteres durs aux cceurs sensibles, que c'est lereel 
de la vie qui vient fletrir et repousser les voeux des ames genereuses ; et 
quand le choeur si doux reprend, on renait a I'esperance ; mais lorsque 
le verset recite recommence, une sensation de froid saisit de nouveau ; 
ce n'est pas la terreur qui la cause, mais le decouragement de I'enthou- 
siasme. Enfin le dernier morceau, plus noble et plus touchant encore 
que tous les autres, laisse au fond de I'ame une impression douce et 
pure : Dieu nous accorde cette meme impression avant de mourir. 

"On eteint les flambeaux; la nuit s'avance ; les figures des pro- 
phetes et des sibylles apparaissent comme des fantomes enveloppes du 
crepuscule. Le silence e,st profond, la parole ferait un mal insup- 
portable dans cet etat de I'ame, ou tout est intime et interieur ; et 
quand le dernier son s'eteint, chacun s'en va lentement et sans bruit ; 
chacun semble craindre de rentrer dans les interets vulgaires de ce 
monde." — Mad. de Stael. 

Opposite the Sistine Chapel is the entrance of the Sala 
Ducale, in which the popes formerly gave audience to foreign 
princes, and which is now used for the consistories for the 
admission of cardinals to the sacred college. Its decora- 
tions were chiefly executed by Bernini for Alexander VII. 
The landscapes are by Brill. This hall is used as a passage 
to the Loggie of Bramante. 



The small portion of the Vatican inhabited by the pope 
is never seen except by those who are admitted to a special 
audience. The rooms of the aged pontiff are furnished 
with a simplicity which would be inconceivable in the 
abode of any other sovereign prince. It is a lonely life, 
as the dread of an accusation of nepotism has prevented 
any of the later popes from having any of their family with 
them, and etiquette always obliges them to dine, &c., alone. 
No one, whatever the difference of creed, can look upon this 
building inhabited by the venerable old men who have borne 
so important a part in the history of Christianity and of 
Europe, without the deepest interest. 

" Je la vols cette Rome, ou d'augustes vieillards, 
Heritiers d'un apotre et vainqueurs des Cesars, 
Souverains sans armee et conquerants sans guerre, 
A leur triple couronne ont asservi la terre." 

Paciue. 

Two hundred and fifty five popes are reckoned from St. 
Peter to Pio IX. inclusive. A famous prophecy of S. Malachi, 
first printed in 1595, is contained in a series of mottoes, one 



550 WALKS IN ROME. 

for each of the whole Hne of pontiffs until the end of 
time. Following this it will be seen that only eleven more 
popes are needed to exhaust the mottoes, and to close the 
destinies of Rome, and of the world. The later ones run 
thus ; — 



Fides intrepida. 
Pastor angelicus. 
Pastor et nauta. 
Flos florum. 
De medietate lunse. 
De labore solis. 
Gloria olivse. 



**Pius VII. Aquila Rapax. 
Leo XII. Canis et coluber. 
Pius VIII. Vir religiosus. 
Gregory XVI. de Balneis Etruriae. 
Pius IX. Crux de cruce. 
. . . Lumen in coelo. 
. . . Ignis ardens. 

. . Religio depopuiata. 

In persecutione extrema sacra Romanse Ecclesise sedebit PETRUS 
Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis tribulationibus : quibus transactis, 
civitas septicoUis diruetur, et JUDEX tremendus jiidicabit populura." 

The Cardinal Secretary of State has rooms above the 
pontifical apartments. His collection of antique gems is of 
European celebrity. 

" Antonelli loge au Vatican, sur la tete du pape, Les Romains de- 
mandent, en maniere du calembour, lequel est le plus haut, du pape ou 
d' Antonelli." — About, Question Romaine. 



The entrance to the Museum of Statues (for those who 
do not come from the Sala Regia) is by the central door on 
the left of the Cortile S. Damaso, whence you ascend a 
staircase and follow the loggia on the first floor, covered 
with stuccoes and arabesques by Giovaimi da Udme, to the 
door of . 

The Galleria Lapidaria, a corridor 2131 feet in length. 
Its sides are covered on the right with Pagan, on the left 
with Early Christian inscriptions. Ranged along the walls 
are a series of sarcophagi, cippi, and funeral altars, some of 
them very fine. The last door on the left of this gallery is 
the entrance to the Library. 

Separated from this by an iron gate, which is locked, 
except on Mondays, but opened by a custode (fee 50 c), 
is the Museo Chiaramonti ; but the visitors should first 
enter, on the left, 

Tho^ Bmccio Nuovo, hm\t under Pius VII. in 181 7, l;y 
Raphael Stern, a fine hall, 250 feet long, filled with gems 
of sculpture. Perhaps most worth attention are (the c/ufs 
d'oeiivre being marked with an asterisk) : 



THE BRACCIO-NUOVO. 551 

Right,— 

5, *Caryatide. 

This statue was admirably restored by Thorwaldsen. Its Greek origin 
is undoubted, and it is supposed to be the missing figure from the Erech- 
theum at Athens. 

"Quand une fille des premieres families n'avait pour vetement, 
comme celle-ci, qu'une chemise et par-dessus une demi-chemise ; quand 
elle avait I'habitude de porter des vases sur sa tete, et par suite de se 
tenir droite ; quand pour toute toilette elle retroussait ses cheveux ou les 
laissait tomber en boucles ; quand le visage n'etait pas plisse par les 
mille petites graces et les mille petites preoccupations bourgeoises, une 
femme pouvait avoir la tranquille attitude de cette statue. Aujourd'hui 
il en reste un debris dans les paysannes des environs qui portent leurs 
corbeilles sur la tete, mais el les sont gatees par le travail et les haillons. 
Le sein parait sous la chemise ; la tunique colle et visiblement n'est 
qu'un linge ; on voit la forme de la jambe qui casse I'etoffe au genou ; 
les pieds apparaissent nus dans les sandales. Rien ne pent rendre le 
serieux naturel du visage. Certainement, si on pouvait revoir la per- 
sonne reelle avec ses bras blancs, ses cheveux noirs, sous la lumiere du 
soleil, les genoux plieraient, comme devant une deesse, de respect et dc 
plaisir.'' — Taine, Voyage en Italie. 

8. Commodus. 

" La statue de Commode est tres curieuse par le costume. II tient a 
la main une lance, il a des especes de bottes : tout cela est du chasseur, 
enfin il porte la tunique a manches dont parle Dion Cassius, et qui 
etait son costume d' amphitheatre." — Amph'e, Emp. ii. 246. 

9. Colossal head of a Dacian, from the Forum of Trajan. 
II. Silenus and the infant Bacchus. 

This is a copy from the Greek, of which there were several replicas. 
One, formerly in the Villa Borghese, is now at Paris. The original group 
is described by Pliny, who says that the name of the sculptor was lost 
even in his time. The greater portion of the child, the left arm and 
hand of Silenus, and the ivy-leaves, are restorations. 

" Je pense que ce chef-d'oeuvre est une imitation modifiee du Merciire 
nourricier de Bacchus, par Cephisodote, fils de Praxitele." — Ampere^ 
Hist. Rom. iii. 332. 

14, *Augustus, found 1863, in the villa of Livia at Prima- Porta. 
" This is, without exception, the finest portrait statue of this class in 

the whole collection The cuirass is covered with small 

figures, in basso-relievo, which, as works of art, are even finer than the 
statue itself, and merit the most careful examination. These small 
figures are, in their way, marvels of art, for the wonderful boldness of 
execution and minuteness of detail shown in them. They are almost 
like cameos, and yet, with all the delicacy of finish displayed, there is no 
mere smoothness of surface. The central group is supposed to represent 
the restoration to Augustus by King Phraates of the eagles taken from 
Crassus and Antony. Considerable traces of colour were found on this 
statue and are still discernible. Close examination will also show that 
the face and eyes were coloured." — Shahfere Wood. 



55- WALKS IN ROME. 

ly. -^^isculapius. 

20. Nerva ? Head modern. 

23. *Pudicitia. From the Villa Mattel. Head mo iern. 

"The portrait of a noble Roman lady, much disfigured by restora- 
tions. This statue shows the neglect, by a sculptor of great ability, of 
that thoroughness of execution which was such a characteristic of Greek 
art. Compare the great beauty of the lower portion of the drapery, seen 
from the front, with the poverty of execution at the back." — Shakspere 
Wood. 

" Qu'ou regarde une statue toute voilee, par exemplecelle de la Pudi- 
cite : il est evident que le vetement antique n'altere pas la forme du 
corps, que les plis coUants ou mouvants regoivent du corps leurs formes 
et leurs changements, qu'on suit sans peine a travers les plis requilibre 
de toute la charpente, la rondeur de Tepaule ou de la hanche, le creux du 
dos.'' — Taiue. 

26. Titus. Found 1828, near the Lateran (with his daughter Julia). 

27, 40, 92. Colossal busts of Medusa, from the temple of Venus at 

Rome. 
32, 33. Fauns, sitting, from the villa of Quintilius at Tivoli. 
38. Ganymede, found at Ostia ; on the tree against which he leans 

is engraved the name of Pheedimus. 
29. Vase of black basalt, found on the Quirinal. It stands on a 

mosaic, from the Tor Marancia. 
41. Faun playing on a flute, from the villa of Lucullus. 
44. Wounded Amazon (both arms and legs are restorations) 

" Les trois Amazones blessees de Rome ne peuvent eti-e que des 
copies de la celebre Amazone de Cresilas . . . . Ce Cresilas fut 
I'auteur du guerrier grec mourant qui selon toute apparence a inspire le 
pretendu Gladiateur mourant auquel s' applique merveilleusement bien 
ce que dit Pline du premier." — Afiipere, Hist. Rom. iii. 263. 

47. Caryatide. 

48. Bust of Trajan. 

50. *Diana contemplating the sleeping Endymion. 

53. Euripides. 
" Le plus remarquable portrait d'Euripide est une belle statue au Vati- 
can. Cette statue donne une haute id^e de la sublimite de I'art tragique 
en Grece .... Regardez ce poete, combien toute sa personne a 
de gravite et de grandeur, rien n'avertit qu'on a devant les yeux celui qui 
aux yeux des juges severes, affaiblissait I'art et le corrompait ; I'attitude 
est simple, la visage serieux, comme il convient a un poete philosophe. 
Ce serait la plus belle statue de poete tragique si la statue de Sophocle 
n'existait pas." — Ampere, iii. 572. 

62 *Demosthenes, found near Frescati. 
" Both hands were wanting, and the restorer has replaced them 
holding a roll .... They were originally placed with the fingers 
clasped together, and the proofs are these. An anecdote is related of an 
Athenian soldier, who had hidden some stolen money in the clasped 
hands of a statue of Demosthenes ; and if you observe the lines formed 
by the fore-arms, from the elbows to half-way down the wrists, where 
the restoration commences, you will find that, continued on, they would 



THE BRACCIO-NUOVO. 553 

bring the wrists very much nearer to each other than they now are in the 
restoration. It is possible that this is the identical statue spoken of." — 
Shakspere Wood. 

67. *Apoxyomenos. An Athlete scraping his arm with a strigil ; 
found 1840 in the Vicolo delle Palure in the Trastevere. 
This is a replica of the celebrated bronze statue of Lysippus, and is 
described by Pliny, who narrates that it was brought from Greece by 
Agrippa to adorn the baths which he built for the people, and that Ti- 
berius so admired it, that he carried it off to his palace, but was foixed to 
restore it by the outcries of the populace, the next time he appeared iri 
public. 
Left.— 

yi, Amazon. (Arms and feet restorations by Thorwaldsen.) 

77. Antonia, from Tusculum. 

81. Bust of Hadrian. 

83. Juno ? (head, a restoration) from Hadrian's villa. 

86. Fortune with a cornucopia, from Ostia. 

92 Venus Anadyomena. 
" La gracieuse Venus Anadyomene, que chacun connait, a le merite de 
nous rendre une peinture perdue d'Apelles ; elle en a un autre encore, 
c'est de nous conserver dans ce portrait — qui n'est point en buste — quel- 
ques traits de la beaute de Campaspe, d'apres laquelle Apelles, dit-on, 
peignit sa Venus Anadyomene."— ^»z/)^??r, iii. 324. 

96. Bust of Marc Antony, from the Tor Sapienza. 
109. *Colossal group of the Nile, found, temp. Leo X., near Sta. 
Maria sopra Minerva. 
A Greek statue. The sixteen children clambering over it are re- 
storations, and allude to the sixteen cubits' depth with which the river 
annually irrigates the country. On the plinth, the accompaniments of 
the river, — the ibis, crocodile, hippopotamus, &c., are repx-esented. 

111. Julia, daughter of Titus, found near the Lateran. 

" Cette princesse, de la nouvelle et bourgeoise race des Flaviens, 
n'offre rien du noble profil et de la fiere beaute des Agrippines : elle a 
un nez ecrase et Pair commun. La coiffure de Julie acheve de la rendre 
disgracieuse : c'est une maniere de pouf assez semblable a une eponge. 
Compare aux coiffures du siecle d'Auguste, le tour de cheveux ridicule 
de Julie montre la decadence du goiit, plus rapide dans la toilette que 
dans Tart." — Ampere, Etnp. \\. 120. 

112. Bust of Juno, called the Juno Pentini. 

114. *Minerva Medica, found in the temple so called; formerly in 
the Giustiniani collection. 

A most beautiful Greek statue, much injured by restoration. 

" In the Giustiniani palace is a statue of Minerva which fills me with 
admiration. Winckelmann scarcely, thinks anything of it, or at any rate 
does not give it its proper position ; but I cannot praise it sufficiently. 
While we were gazing upon the statue, and standing a long time beside 
it, the wife of the custode told us that it was once a sacred image, and 
that the English, whc- are of that religion, still lield it in veneration, 
being in the habit of kissing one of its hands, which was certainly quite 



554 WALKS IN ROME. 

vhite, while the rest of the statue was of a brownish colour. She a Jded, 
that a lady of this religion had been there a short time before, had 
thrown herself on her knees, and worshipped the statue. Such a wonder- 
ful action she, as a Christian, could not behold without laughter, and 
fled from the room, for fear of exploding." — Goethe. 

117. Claudius. 

120. A replica of the Faun of Praxiteles, inferior to that at the 
Capitol. 

" Le jeune Satyre qui tient une flute est trop semblable a celui du 
Capitole pour n'etre pas de meme Une reproduction de I'un des deux 
Satyres isoles de Praxitele, son Satyre d'Athenes ou son Satyre de 
Megare ; on pourrait croire aussi que le Satyre a la flute a eu pour 
original le Satyre de Protogene qui, bien quepeint dans Rhodes assiegee, 
exprimait le calme le plus profond et qu'on appelait cehd qui se repose 
{aiiapa7wmenos)\ on pourrait le croire, car la statue a toujours une jambe 
croisee sur I'autre, attitude qui, dans le langage de la sculpture antique, 
designe le repos. II ne serait pas impossible non plus que Protogene 
se fiat inspire de Praxitele; mais en ce cas il n'en avait pas reproduit 
completement le charme, car Apelles, tout en admirant une autre figure 
de Protogene, lui reprochait de manquer de grace. Or, le Satyre a la 
flute est tres-gracieux ; ce qui me porte a croire qu'il vient directement 
de Praxitele plutot que de Praxitelb par Protogene." — Ampere^ Hist. 
Rom. iii. 308. 

123. L. Veins. Naked statue. 
126. Athlete; the discus, a restoration. 
129. Domitian, from the Giustiniani collection. 

132. Mercury (the head, a restoration by Canova), from the Villa 
Negroni. 

Here we re-enter the Museo Chiaramonti, lined with 
sculptures, chiefly of inferior interest. They are arranged 
in thirty compartments. We may notice : 

Autumn and Winter, two sarcophagi from Ostia, the 
latter bearing the name of Publius Elius Verus. 

A beautiful mutilated fragment, supposed to be one of 
the daughters of Niobe. 

Head of Roma, from Laurentum. 

Venus Anadyomena. 

Tiberius, seated, found at Veii in 181 1. 

Augustus, from Veii. 

*Bust of the young Augustus, found at Ostia, 1 808. 

Seated statue of Tiberius, from Pipemo. 

Cupid bending his bow, a copy of a.statue by Lysippus. 
512. Two busts of Cato. 
Mercury, found near the Monte di Pieta. 
Head of Neptune, from Ostia. 
Recumbent Hercules, from Hadrian's Villa. 

At the end of this gallery is the entrance to the Giardino 
della Pigna (described under the Vatican Gardens). Ad-, 



] 


[. 6, 13. 


VIII. 


r. 176. 




r. 197. 


XIV, 


r- 352. 


XVI. 


f. 4CX5. 




r. 401. 


XVII. 


r. 417. 


XX 


• r. 494- 




r- 495- 


XXI. 


r. 550, 


XXIV. 


r. 589. 


XXV. 


r. 606. 


XXX. 


r. 732. 



TBE VESTIBULE OF THE TORSO. 555 

luittance may probably be obtained from hence for a fee of 
50 c. At the top of the short staircase, on the left, is the 
entrance of the Egyptian Museum. Here we enter the 
Museo Pio-Clei7ientino, founded under Clement XIV., but 
chiefly due to the liberality and taste of Pius VL, in whose 
reign, however, most of the best statues were carried off to 
Paris, though they were restored to Pius VII. 

In the centre of \st Vestibule is the * Torso Belvidere, 
found in the baths of Caracalla, and sculptured, as is told 
by a Greek inscription on its base, by Apollonius, son of 
Nestor of Athens. It was to this statue that Michael- 
Angelo declared that he owed his power of representing the 
human form, and in his blind old age he used to be led up 
to it, that he might pass his hands over it, and still enjoy, 
through touch, the grandeur of its lines. 

"And dost thou still, thou mass of breathing stone 
(Thy giant limbs to night and chaos hurled), 
Still sit as on the fragment of a world, 
Surviving all, majestic and alone ? 
What tho' the Spirits of the North, that swept 
Rome from the earth when in her pomp she slept, 
Smote thee with fury, and thy headless trunk 
Deep in the dust 'mid tower and temple sunk ; 
Soon to subdue mankind 'twas thine to rise. 
Still, still unquelled thy glorious energies ! 
Aspiring minds, with thee conversing, caught 
Bright revelations of the good they sought ; 
By thee that long-lost spell in secret given, 
To draw down gods, and lift the soul to Heaven." 

Rogers. 
** Quelle a ete I'original du torse d'Hercule, ce chef-d'oeuvre que pal- 
pait de ses mains intelligentes Michel-Ange aveugle et reduit a ne plus 
voir que par elles ? Heyne a pense que ce pouvait etre une copie en 
grand de I'Hercule Epitrapezios de Lysippe, mais par le style cette 
statue me semble anterieure a Lysippe. Cependant on lit sur le torse 
le nom d'Apollonios d'Ath^nes, fils de Nestor, et la forme des lettres 
ne permet pas de placer cette inscription plus haut que le dernier siecle 
de la Republique. 

" Comment admettre que cette statue, aussi admiree par Winckel- 
mann que par Michel-Ange, ce debris auquel on revient apres I'eblouisse- 
ment de I'Apollon du Belvidere, pour retrouver une sculpture plus male 
et plus simple, un style plus fort et plus grand ; comment admettre qu'une 
telle statue soit I'oeuvre d'un sculpteur inconnu dont Pline ne parle point, 
ni personne autre dans I'antiquite, et qu'elle date d'un temps si eloigne 
de la grande epoque de Phidias, qutind elle semble y tenir de si pres ? 

" . . . . Pourquoi ie torse du Vatican ne serait-il pas d'Alca- 
mene, ou, si Ton veut, d'apres Alcamene, par ApoUonios ?" — Aiufbre, 
Hist. Rome^ iii. p. 360, 363. 

2 O 



556 WALKS IN ROME. 

Close by, in a niche, is the celebrated peperino *Tomb 
of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, consul B.C. 297. It sup- 
ports a bust, supposed, upon slight foundation, to be that of 
the poet Ennius. Inscriptions from other tombs of the 
Scipios are inserted in the neighbouring wall.t 

" L'epitaphe de Scipion le Barbu semble le resume d'une oraison 
funebre ; elle s'adresse aux spectateurs : ' Cornelius Scipion Barbatus, 
ne d'un pere vaillant, homme courageux et prudent, dont la beaute 
egalait la vertu. II a ete parmi vous consul, censeur, edile ; il a pris 
Taurasia, Cisauna, le Samnium. Ayant soumis toute la Lucanie, il en 
a emmene des otages.' 

" Y a-t-il rien de plus grand ? 11 a pris le Samnium et la Lucanie. 
Voila tout. 

" Ce sarcophage est un des plus curieux monuments de Rome. Par 
la matiere, par la forme des lettres et le style de I'inscription, il vous 
represente la rudesse des Romains au sixieme siecle. Le gout tres-pur 
de I'architecture et des ornements vous montre I'avenement de I'art grec 
tombant, pour ainsi dire, en pleine sauvagerie romaine. Le tombeau de 
Scipion le Barbu est en peperin, ce tuf rugueux, grisatre, seme de taches 
noires. Les caracteres sont irreguliers, les lignes sont loin d'etre droites, 
le latin est antique et barbare, mais la forme et les ornements du tombeau 
sont grecs. II y a la des volutes, des triglyphes, des denticules ; on ne 
saurait rien imaginer qui fasse mieux voir la culture grecque venant sur- 
prendre et saisir la rudesse latine" — Aiiipere, Hist. Rom. iii. 132. 

The Roufid Vestibule contains a fine vase of pavonazzetto. 

The adjoining balcony contains a curious Wind Indicator, 
found (1779) ^^^^ ^^^^ Coliseum. Hence there is a lovely 
view over the city. In the garden beneath is a fountain 
with a curious bronze ship floating in its bason (see Vatican 
Gardens). 

At the end of the T^rd Vestibule stands the ''^Statue of 
Meleager, with a boar's head and a dog, supposed to have 
been begun in Greece by some famous sculptor, and finished 
in Rome (the dog, &c,) by an inferior workman. 

"Meleager is represented in a position of repose, leaning on his 
spear, the mark of the junction of which, with the plinth, is still to be 
seen. The want of the spear gives the statue the appearance of leaning 
too much to one side, but if you can imagine it replaced, you will see 
that the pose is perfectly and truthfully rendered. This statue was found 
at the commencement of the sixteenth century, outside the Porta Portese, 
in a vineyard close to the Tiber." — Shakspcre Wood. 

" Ce Meleagre du Vatican respire une grace tranquille, et, place entre 
le sublime Torse et les merveilles du Belvedere, semble etre R pour at- 
tendre et pour accueillir de son air aimable et un pcu melancolique, oil 
Ton a cm voir le signe d'une destinee qui devait etre courte, I'enthou- 
siasme du voyageur." — AfnJ)^re, Hist. Rom. iii. 515. 

t S«e the account of the "Tombs of the Scipios " in Chapter IX. 



THE ANTING US; THE LAOCOON. 557 

From the central vestibule we enter the Cortile del Bel- 
videre, an octagonal court built by Bra??iante, having a 
fountain in the centre, and decorated with fine sarcophagi 
and vases, &c. From this opens, beginning from the right, 
the— 

First Cabinet^ containing the Perseus, and the two Boxers 
— Kreugas and Damoxenus, by Canova. 

The Second Cabinet, containing *the Antinous (now called 
Mercury), perhaps the most beautiful statue in the world. 
It was found on the Esquiline near S. Martino al Monte. 
It has never been injured by restoration, but was broken 
across the ankles when found, and has been unskilfully put 
together. 

" Je suis bien tente de rapporter a un original de Polyclete, qui aimait 
les formes carrees, le Mercure du Belvedere, qui n'est pas tres-svelte 
pour un Mercure. On a cru reconnaitre que les proportions de cette 
statue se rapprochaient beaucoup des proportions prescrites par Polyclete. 
Poussin, comme Polyclete, ami des formes carrees, declarait le Mercure, 
qu'on appelait alors sans motif un Antinoiis, le module le plus parfait 
des proportions du corps humain ; il pourrait a ce titre remplacer jusqu'^ 
un certain point la statue de Polyclete, appelee la regie, parcequ'elle passait 
pour offrir ce modele parfait, et faisait regie a cet egard. De plus, on 
sait qu'un Mercure de Polyclete avait ete apport^ a Rome." — Antp^rCy 
Hist Rom. iii. 267. 

TJiird Cabinet, of *the Laocoon. This wonderful group 
was discovered near the Sette Sale on the Esquiline in 
1506, while Michael- Angelo was at Rome. The right arm 
of the father is a terra-cotta restoration, and is said by 
Winckelmann to be the work of Bernini ; the arms of the 
sons are additions by Agostino Comacchini of Pistoia. 
There is now no doubt that the Laocoon is the group 
described by Pliny. 

*' The fame of many sculptors is less diffused, because the number 
employed upon great works prevented their celebrity ; for there is no 
one artist to receive the honour of the work, and where there are more 
than one they cannot all obtain an equal fame. Of this the Laocoon is 
an example, which stands in the palace of the emperor Titus, — a work 
^ which maybe considered superior to all others both in painting and 
statuary. The whole group, — the father, the boys, and the awful folds 
of the serpents, — were formed out of a single block, in accordance with 
a vote of the senate, by Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, 
Rhodian sculptors of the highest merit." — Pliny, lib. xxxvi. c 4. 

"Les trois sculpteurs rhodiens qui travaillerent ensemble au Laocoon 
etaient probablement un pere et ses deux fils, qui executerent I'un la 
statue du pere, et les autres celles des deux fils, touchante analogic entre 
les auteurs et I'ouvrage. 



558 WALKS IN ROME, 

*'Les auteurs du Laocoon etaient Rhodiens, ce peuple auquel, dit 
Pindare, Minerve a donne de I'emporter sur tons les mortels par le tra- 
vail habile de leurs mains, et dont les rues etaient garnies de figures 
vivantes qui semblaient marcher. Or, le grand eclat, la grande puissance 
de Rhodes, appartiennent surtout a I'epoque qui suivit la mort d'Alex- 
andre. Apres qu'elle se fiit delivree du joug macedonien, presque 
toujours alliee de Rome, Rhodes fut florissante par le commerce, 
les armes et la liberie, jusqu'au jour ou elle eut embrasse le parti de 
Cesar ; Cassius prit d'assaut la capitale de I'ile et depouilla ses temples 
de tous leurs ornements. Le coup fut mortel a la republique d^ 
Rhodes, qui depuis ne s'en releva plus. 

" C'est avant cette fatale epoque, dans I'epoque de la prosperite 
rhodienne, entre Alexandre et Cesar, que se place le grand developpe- 
ment de I'art comme de la puissance des Rhodiens, et qu'on est conduit 
naturellement a placer la creation d'un chef-d'oeuvre tel que le Lao- 
coon. 

" Pline dit que les trois statues dont se compose, le groupe etaient d'un 
seul morceau, et ce groupe est forme de plusieurs, on en a compte jusqu'4 
six. Ceci semblerait faire croire que nous n'avons qu'une copie, mais 
j'avoue ne pas attacher une grande importance a cette indication de 
Pline, compilateur plus erudit qu'observateur attentif. Michel-Ange, 
dit-on, remarqua le premier que le Laocoon n'^tait pas d'un seul mor- 
ceau ; Pline a tres-bien pu ne pas s'en apercevoir plus que nous et 
repeter de confiance une assertion inexacte." — Ampere^ Hist. Rom. iii. 
382, 385, 387. 

. . . ** Turning to the Vatican, go see 
Laocoon's torture dignifying pain — 
A father's love and mortal's agony 
With an immortal's patience blending, vain 
The struggle ; vain against the coiling strain 
And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp, 
The old man's clench ; the long envenom'd chain 
Rivets the living links, — the enormous asp 
Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp." 

Childe Harold. 

"The circumstance of the two sons being so much smaller than the 
father, has been criticised by some, but this seems to have been neces- 
sary to the harmony of the composition. The same apparent dispro- 
portion exists between Niobe and her children, in the celebrated group 
at Florence, supposed to be by Scopas. The raised arms of the three 
figures are all restorations, as are some portions of the serpents. Ori- 
ginally, the raised hands of the old man rested on his head, and the 
traces of the junction are clearly discernible. For this we have also the 
evidence of an antique gem, on which it is thus engraved. This work was 
found in the baths (?) of Titus, in the reign of Julius IL, by a certain 
Felix de Fredis, who received half the revenue of the gabella of the 
Porta San Giovanni as a reward, and whose epitaph, in the church of 
Ara Cceii, records the fact." — Shaksperc Wood. 

*' II y avaif: dans la vie, au seizieme siecle, je rve sais qu'elle excitation 
febrile, quelle aspiration vers le beau, vers I'inconnu, qui disposait les 
esprits a I'enthousiasme Felix de Fredis fut gratifie d'une 



THE APOLLO BELVEDERE. 559 

part dans les revenus de la porte de Saint Jean de Latran, pour avoir 
trouve le groupe du Laocoon, et, lorsquel'ordre futdonne de transporter 
au Belvedere le Laocoon, I'ApoUon, la Venus, Rome entiere s'emut, on 
jetait des fleurs au marbre, on battait des mains ; depuis les thermes de 
Titus jusqu'au Vatican, le Laocoon fut porte en triomphe ; et Sadolet 
chantait sur le mode virgilien que durent reconnaitre les echos de 
I'Esquilin et du palais d'Auguste. " — Gournerie, Rome C/u-etienne. 

" I felt the Laocoon very powerfully, though very quietly ; an im- 
mortal agony, with a strange calmness diffused through it, so that it 
resembles the vast rage of the sea, calm on account of its immensity ; or 
the tumult of Niagara, which does not seem to be tumult, because it 
keeps pouring on for ever and ever." 

*' It is a type of human beings, struggling with an inexplicable trouble, 
and entangled, in a complication which they cannot free themselves from 
by their own efforts, and out of which Heaven alone can help them." — 
Hawthorne, Notes on Italy. 

The Fourth Cabinet contdAwi^ the. Apollo Belvedere, found 
in the sixteenth century at Porto d'Anzio (Antium), and 
purchased by Julius II. for the Belvedere Palace, which was 
at that time a garden pavilion separated from the rest of 
the Vatican, and used as a museum of sculpture. It is now 
decided that this statue, beautiful as it is, is not the original 
work of a Greek sculptor, but a copy, probably from the 
bronze of Calamides, which represented Apollo, as the 
defender of the city, and which was erected at Athens after 
the cessation of a great plague. Four famous statues of 
Apollo are mentioned by Pliny as existing at Rome in his 
time, but this is not one of them. 

" Or view the Lord of the unerring bow, 
The God of life, and poesy, and light — 
The Sun in human limbs array'd, and brow 
All radiant from his triumph in the fight ; 
The shaft hath just been shot — the arrow bright 
With an immortal's vengeance ; in his eye 
And nostril beautiful disdain, and might, 
And majesty flash their full lightnings by, 
Developing in tliat one glance the Deity." 

Childe Harold, 

** Bright kindling with a conqueror's stem delight, 
His keen eye tracks the arrow's fateful flight : 
Burns his indignant cheek with vengeful fire. 
And his lip quivers with insulting ire : 
Firm fix'd his tread, yet light, as when on high 
H-e walks th' impalpable and pathless sky : 
The rich luxuriance of his hair, confined 
In graceful ringlets, wantons on the wind, 
That lifts in sport his mantle's drooping fohl. 
Proud to display that form of faultless mould. 



56o WALKS IN ROME. 

Mighty Ephesian ! with an eagle's flight 
Thy proud soul mounted through the fields of light, 
View'd the bright conclave of Heaven's blest abode. 
And the cold marble leapt to life a god : 
Contagious awe through breathless myriads ran, 
And nations bow'd before the work of man. 
For mild he seem'd, as in Elysian bowers, 
"Wasting in careless ease the joyous hours ; 
Haughty, as bards have sung, with princely sway 
Curbing the fierce flame-breathing steeds of day ; 
Beauteous as vision seen in dreamy sleep 
By holy maid on Delphi's haunted steep. 
Mid the dim twilight of the laurel grove. 
Too fair to worship, too divine to love." 

Henry Hart Milman. 

In the second portico, between Canova's statues and the 
Antinous, is (No. 43) a Venus and Cupid, — interesting 
because the Venus is a portrait of Sallustia Barbia Orbiana, 
wife of Alexander Severus. It was discovered in the fifteenth 
century, in the ruin near Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, to 
which it has given a name. In the third portico, between 
the Antinous and the Laocoon, are two beautiful dogs. 
Between these Ave enter : 

The Sala degli Animali, containing a number of repre- 
sentations of animals in marble and alabaster. Perhaps 
the best is No. 116 — two greyhounds playing. The statue 
ofCommoduson horseback (No. 139) served as a model 
to Bemini for his figure of Ccnstantine in the portico of St. 
Peter's. 

" La Salle des Animaux au Vatican est comme un museede I'ecole de 
Myron ; le naturel parfait qu'il donna ^ ses representations d'animaux y 
eclate partout. C'est une sorte de menagerie de I'art, et elle merite de 
s'appeler, comme celle du Jardin des Plantes, une menagerie d'animaux 
vivants. 

*'Ces animaux sont pourtant d'un merite inegal : parmi le$ meilleurs 
morceaux on compte des chiens qui jouent ensemble avec beaucoup de 
verite, un cygne dont le duvet, un mouton tue dont la toison sont tres- 
bien rendus, une tete d'ane tres-vraie et portant une couronne de lierre, 
allusion au role de I'ane de Silene dans les mysteres bacchiques." — 
Aniph-e, Hist. Ro7n. lii. 276. 

On the right we enter : 

The Galleria delle Statue, once a summer-house of Inno- 
cent VIIL, but arranged as a statue-gallery under Pius VI. 
In its lunettes are remains of frescoes by Finturicchio. Be- 
ginning on the right, are : 



' GALLERIA DELLE STA TUE. 561 

48.. An armed statue of Claudius Albinus standing on a cippus which 
nnarked the spot where the body of Caius Caesar was burnt, 
inscribed C. C^SAR Germanici C^saris hic crematus 

EST. 

250. The * Statue called "The Genius of the Vatican," supposed to be 

a copy from a Cupid of Praxiteles which existed in the Portico 
of Octavia in the time of Pliny, On the back are the holes 
for the metal pins which supported the wings. 

251. Athlete. 

253. Triton, from Tivoli. 

255. Paris. 

" Le Vatican possede une statue de Paris jugeant les deesses. Cette 
statue est-elle, comme on le pense generalement, une copie du Paris 
d'Euphranor ? 

"Euphranor avait-il choisi le moment otx Paris juge les deesses? 
Les expressions de Pline pourraient en faire douter: il ne I'afifirme 

f)oint ; il dit que dans la statue d'Euphranor on eCxt pu reconnaitre 
e juge des trois deesses, I'amant d'Helene et le vainqueur d'Achille. 
****** 
' ' La statue du Vatican est de beaucoup la plus remarquable des 
statues de Paris. On y sent, malgre ses imperfections, la presence d'un 
original fameux ; de plus, son attitude est celle de Paris sur plusieurs 
vases peints et sur plusieurs bas-reliefs, et nous verrons que les bas- 
reliefs reproduisaient tres-souvent une statue celebre. II m'est impos- 
sible, il est vrai, de voir dans le Paris du Vatican tout ce que Pline dit 
du Paris d'Euphranor. Je ne puis y voir que le juge des deesses. 
L* expression de son visage montre qu'il a contemple la beaute de 
Venus, et que le prix va etre donne. Rien n'annonce I'amant d'Helene, 
ni surtout le vainqueur d'Achille; mais ce qui etait dans I'original 
aurait pu disparaitre de la copie." — Ampere, Hist. R0171. iii. 300. 

256. Young Hercules. 

259' Figure probably intended for Apollo, restored as Minerva. 

260. A Greek relief, from a tomb. 

261. Penelope, on a pedestal, with a relief of Bacchus and 

Ariadne. 
"L'attente de Penelope nous est presente, et, pour ainsi dire, dure 
encore pour nous dans cette expressive Penelope, dont le torse nous a 
montre un specimen de I'art grec sous la forme la plus ancienne."— 
Amph'e, Hist. Rome, iii. p. 452. 

264. * Apollo Sauroctonos (killing a lizard), found on the Palatine in 

1777 — a copy of a work of Praxiteles. Several other copies 

are in existence, one in bronze, in the Villa Albani, inferior 

to this. The right arm and the legs above the knees are 

restorations, well executed. 

*'Apollon presque enfant epie un lezard qui se glisse le long d'un 

arbre. On sait, a n'en pouvoir douter, d'apres la description de Pline 

et de Martial, que cet Apollon, souvent repete, est une imitation de 

celui de Praxitele, et quand on ne le saurait pas, on I'eut devine." — 

Ampere, iii. 313. 

;265. Amazon, found in the Villa Mattel, the finest of the three 
Amazons in the Vatican, which are all supposed to be copies 



562 WALK'S IN ROME. 

from the fifty statues of Amazons, -which decorated the 
temple of Diana at Ephesus. 

267. Drunken Satyr. 

268. Juno, from Otricoli. 

271, 390. Posidippus and Menander, very fine statues, perfectly 
preserved, owing to their having been kept through the 
middle ages in the church of S. Lorenzo Pane e Pema, where 
they were worshipped under the belief that they were statues 
of saints, a belief which arose from their having metal discs 
over their heads, a practice which prevailed with many 
Greek statues intended for the open air. The marks of the 
metal pins for these discs may still be seen, as well as those 
for a bronze protection for the feet, to prevent their being 
worn away by the kisses of the faithful, — as on the statue of 
St. Peter at St. Peter's. 

Between these statues we enter : 

The Hail of Busts. Perhaps the best are : 

278. Augustus, with a wreath of com. 
289. Julia Mammaea, mother of Alexander Severus. 
299. Jupiter-Serapis, in basalt. 
325. Jupiter. 
357. Antinous. 

388. *Roman Senator and his wife, from a tomb. (These busts, having 
been much admired by the great historian, were copied for 
the monument of Niebuhr at Bonn, erected, by his former 
pupil the King of Prussia, to his memory — with that of 
his loving wife Gretchen, who only survived him nine 
days. ) 
" Les tetes de deux epoux, repr^sentes au devant de leur tombeau d'ou 
ils semblent sortir a mi-corps et se tenant par le main, sont surtout 
d'une simplicite et d'une verite inexprimable. La femmeest assez jeune 
et assez belle, 1' epoux est vieux et tres-laid ; mais ce groupe a un air 
honnete et digne qui repond pour tous deux d'une vie de serenite et 
de vertii. Nul recit ne pourrait aussi bien que ces deux figures trans- 
porter au sein des mceurs domestiques de Rome ; en leur presence on 
se sent penetre soi-meme d'honnetete, de pudeur et de respect, comme 
si on etait assis au chaste foyer de Lucrece." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. 
iv. 103. 

Re-entering the Gallery of Statues, and following the left 
wall, are : 

392. Septimius Severus. 

393. Girl at a spring ? 

394. Neptui>e. 

395. Apollo Citharcedus. 

396. Wounded Adonis. 

397. Bacchus, from Hadrian's Villa. 

398. Macrinus (Imp. 217). 

399. i^sculapius and Hygeia, from Pales; rina. 
4CXJ. Euterpe. 



GALLERIA DELLE STA TUE. 563 

401. Mutilated group from the Niobides, found near Porta San 
Paolo. 

405. Danaide. 

406. Copy of the Faun of Praxiteles, very beautiful, but inferior to 

that at the Capitol. 
422. Head of a fountain, with Bacchanalian Procession. 

(Here is the entrance of the Gabinetto delle Masc/we, which 
contains works of small importance. It is named from 
the mosaic upon the floor, of masks from. Hadrian's Villa. 
It is seldom shown, probably because it contains a chair 
of rosso-antico, called " Sedia forata," found near the 
Lateran, and supposed to be the famous " Sella Sterco- 
raria" used at the installation of the mediaeval popes, and 
associated with the legend of Pope Joan. 

' Le Pape elu (Celestine III. 1 191) se prosterne devant I'autel pendant 
que Ton chante le Te Deum : puis les Cardinaux Eveques le conduisent 
a son siege derriere I'autel : la ils viennent a ses pieds, et il leur donna 
le baiser de paix. On le mene ensuite k une chaise posee devant la 
portique de la Basilique du Sauveur de Latran. Cette chaise etait 
nommee d^s lors ^ Stenorarza,^ parceque elle est percee au fond : mais 
I'ouverture est petite, et les antiquaires jugent que c'etoit pour egouter 
I'eau, et que cette chaise servait a quelque bain." — Fleury, Histoire EccU- 
siastique, xv. p. 525.) 

462. Cinerary Urn of Alabaster. 

4i4.*Sleeping Ariadne, found c. 1503 — formerly supposed to repre- 
sent Cleopatra, 

"The effect of sleep, so remarkable in this statue, and which 
could not have been rendered by merely closing the lids over the eyes, 
is produced by giving positive form to the eyelashes ; a distinct ridge, 
being raised at right angles to the surface of the lids, with a slight 
indented line along the edge to show the division." — Shakspere Wood. 

" La figure est certainement ideale et n'est point un portrait ; mais ce 
qui ne laisse aucun doute sur le nom a lui donner, c'est un bas-relief, 
un peu refait, il est vrai, qu'on a eu la tres-heureuse idee de placer 
aupres d'elle. 

" On y voit une femme endormie dont I'attidude est tout a fait pareille 
k celle de la statue, Thesee qui va s'embarquer pendant le sommeil 
d'Ariane, et Bacchus qui arrive pour la consoler. C'est exactement ce 
que Ton voyait peint dans le temple de Bacchus k Athenes. 

" Cette statue, belle sans doute, mais peut-etre trop vantee, doit 
etre posterieure k I'epoque d' Alexandre. Sa pose gracieuse est presque 
manieree : on dirait qu'elle se regarde dormir. La disposition de la 
draperie est conipliquee et un peu embrouillee, a tel point que les uns 
prennent pour une couverture ce que d'autres regardent comme un man- 
teau." — A7?ipere, Hist. Rom. iii. 534. 

Beneath this figure is a fine sarcophagus, representing the Battle of the 
Giants. 

412, 413. "The Barberini Candelabra" from Hadrian's Villa. 



564 WALJCS IN ROME. 

416. Ariadne. 

417. Mercury. 

420. Lucius Verus — on a pedestal which supported the ashes of 
Drusus in the Mausoleum of Augustus. 

From the centre of the Sala degh Animali we now enter : 
The Sala delle Muse, adorned with sixteen Corinthian 
columns from Hadrian's Villa. It is chiefly filled with 
statues and busts from the villa of Cassius at Tivoli. The 
statues of the Muses and that called Apollo Musagetes 
(No. 516) are generally attributed to the time of the Anto- 
nines. 

'* Nous Savons que I'Apollon Citharede de Scopas etait dans le temple 
d'Apollon Palatin, 'eleve par Auguste ; les medailles, Properce et 
Tibulle, nous apprennent que le dieu s'y voyait revetu d'une longue 
robe. 

* Ima videbatur talis illudere palla.* 

Tib. iii. 4, 35. 

* Pythius in longa carmina veste sonat. ' 

Prop. ii. 31, 16. 

"Nous ne pouvons done hesiter a admettre que I'Apollon de la 
salle des Muses au Vatican a eu pour premier original I'Apollon de 
Scopas. 

"Nous savons aussi qu'un Apollon de Philiscus et un Apollon de 
Timarchide (celui-ci tenant la lyre), sculpteurs grecs moins anciens que 
Scopas, etaient dans un autre temple d'Apollon, pies du portique 
d'Octavie, en compagnie des Muses, comme I'Apollon Citharede du 
Vatican a ete trouve avec celies qui I'entourent aujourd'hui dans la salle 
des Muses. II est done vraisemblable que cet Apollon est d'apres Phil- 
iscus ou Timarchide, qui eux-memes avaient sans doute copie I'Apollon 
a la lyre de Scopas et I'avaient place au milieu des Muses. 

" Apollon est la, ainsi que plus anciennement il avait ete represente 
sur le coffre de Cypselus, avec cette inscription qui conviendrait a la 
statue du Vatican : ' Alentour est le chceur gracieux des Muses, auquel 
il preside ; ' et, comme dit Pindare, ' au milieu du beau choeur des 
Muses, Apollon frappe du plectrum d'or la lyre aux sept voix." — 
Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 292. 

Here we reach the Sala Roionda, built by Pius VI., paved 
with ^ mosaic found in 1780 in the baths of Otricoli, and 
containing in its centre a grand porphyry^ vase from the 
baths of Titus. On either side of the entrance are colossal 
heads of Tragedy and Comedy, from Hadrian's Villa. Be- 
ginning from the right are : 

539. *Bust of Jupiter from Otricoli — the finest extant. 

540. Antinous, from Hadrian's Villa. All the drapery (probably 

once of bronze) is a restoration. 
"Antinous was drowned in the Nile, A.D. 131. Some accounts 



SALA A CROCK GRECA. 565 

assert that he drowned himself in obedience to an oracle, which de- 
manded for the life of the emperor Hadrian the sacrifice of the object 
dearest to him. However this may be, Hadrian lamented his death 
with extravagant weakness, proclaimed his divinity to the jeering 
Egyptians, and consecrated a temple in his honour. He gave the natne 
of Besantinopolis to a city in which he was worshipped in conjunction 
with an obscure divinity named Besa." — Merivale, Ixvi. 

541. Faustina the elder, wife of Antoninus Pius. 

542. Augustus, veiled. 

543. *Hadrian, found in his mausoleum. 

544. *CoIossal Hercules, in gilt bronze, found (1864) near the 

Theatre of Pompey. The feet and ankles are restorations by 
Tenerani. 

546. *Bust of Antinous. 

547. Sea-god, from Pozzuoli. 

548. *Nerva. 

" Among the treasures of antiquity preserved in modern Rome, none 
surpasses,— none perhaps equals, — in force and dignity, the sitting statue 
of Nerva, which draws all eyes in the rotonda of the Vatican, embody- 
ing the highest ideal of the Roman magnate, the finished warrior, states- 
man, and gentleman of an age of varied training and wide practical ex- 
perience." — Meriz'ale, ch. xliii. 

549. Jupiter Serapis. 

550. *The Barberini Juno. 

551. Claudius. 

552. Juno Sospita, from Lanuvium. This is the only statue in the 

Vatican of which we can be certain that it was a wor- 
shipped idol ; the sandals of the Tyrrhenian Juno turn up 
at the end, — no other Juno wears these sandals. 

553. Plotina, wife of Trajan. 

554. Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus. 
556. Pertinax. 

The Sala a Croce Greca contains : 

On the right. — The porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Constantia, daughter 
of Constantine the Great, adorned with sculptures of a vintage, brought 
hither most inappropriately, from her church near St' Agnese. 

On the left. — The porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Helena, mother of 
Constantine the Great, carried off from her tomb (now called Torre 
Pignatarra) by Anastasius IV., and placed in the Lateran, whence it 
was brought hither by Pius VI. The restoration of its reliefs, repre- 
senting battle scenes of the time of Constantine, cost ;^20,ooo. 

At the end of the hall on the right is a recumbent river- 
god, said to have been restored by Michael Angelo. The 
stairs, adorned with twenty ancient columns from Palestrina, 
lead to : 

The Sala della Biga, so called from a white marble 
charioty drawn by two horses. Only the body of the 
chariot (which long served as an episcopal throne in the 



566 WALKS IN ROME. 

church of S. Marco) and part of the horse on the right, 
are ancient ; the remainder is restoration. Among the 
sculptures here, are : 

608. Bearded Bacchus. 

609. An interesting sarcophagus representing a chariot-race. The 

chariots are driven by Amorini, who are not attending to 
what they are about, and drive over one another. The eggs 
and dolphins on the winning-posts indicated the number of 
times they had gone round ; each time they passed another 
egg and dolphin were put up. 

610. Bacchus, as a woman. 

611. Alcibiades ? 

612. Veiled priest, from the Giustiniani collection. 

614. Apollo Citharaedus. 

615. Discobolus, copy of a bronze statue by Naubides. 

616. *Phocion, very remarkable and beautiful from the extreme 

simplicity of the drapery. 

618. Discobolus, copy of the bronze statue of Myron — inferior to 

that at the Palazzo Massimo. 

** II n'y a pas une statue dont I'original soit connu avec plus de certi- 
tude que le Discobole. Cet original fut I'athlete lan9ant le disque de 
Myron. 

" C'est bien la statue secontoumant avec effort dont parle Quintilien ; 
en effet, la statue, penchee en avant et dans I'attitude du jet, porte le 
corps sur une jambe, tandis que I'autre est trainante derriere lui. Ce 
n'est pas la main, c'est la personne tout entiere qui va lancer le disque." 
■ — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 270. 

619. Charioteer. 

Proceeding in a straight line from the top of the stairs, 
■we enter : 

The Galleria dei Candelabri, 300 feet long, filled with 
small pieces of sculpture. Among these we may notice in 
the centre, on the right, Bacchus and Silenus, found near 
the Sancta-Sanctorura, also : 

194. Boy with a goose. 
224. Nemesis. 

" Une petite statue du Vatican rappelle une curieuse anecdote dont le 
heros est Agoracrite. Alcamene et lui avaient fait chacun une statue 
de Venus. Celle d' Alcamene fut jugee la meilleure par les Atheniens 
Agoraci-ite, indigne de ce qui lui semblait une injustice, transforma la 
sienne en Nemesis, deesse vengeresse de I'equite violee, et le rendit aux 
habitants du bourg de Rhamnus, a condition qu'elle ne serait jamais 
exposee a Athenes. Ceci montre combien sa Venus avait garde la 
severite du type primitif. Ce n'est pas de la Venus du Capitole ou de 
la Venus de Medicis, qu'on aurait pu faire une Nemesis. Nemesis avait 
pour embleme la coudee, signe de la mesurec\\\e Nemesis ne permet point 
de depasser, et I'avant-bras etait la figure de la coudee, par suite, de la 
mesure. C'est pourquoi quand on reprcsentait Nemesis on pla9ait 



GALLERIA DEGLI ARAZZI. 567 

toujours I'avant-bras de maniere d'attirer sur lui I'attention. Dans la 
Nemesis du Vatican la donnee severe est devenue un motif aimable. 
Cet avant-bras, qu'il fallait montrer pour rappeller une loi terrible, 
Nemesis le montre en effet, mais elle s'en sert avec grace pour rattacher 
son vetement." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iii. 260. 

253. Statuette of Ceres, the head from some other statue. 

Hence we enter : 

The Galleria degli Arazzi (open gratis on Mondays;, 
hung with tapestries from the New Testament History, 
executed for the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel, in 
15 15 — 16, for Leo X., from the cartoons of Raphael, of 
which seven were purchased in Flanders by Charles I., and 
are now at Hampton Court. The tapestries are ill arranged. 
According to their present order, beginning on the left wall, 
they are : 

1. St. Peter receiving the keys. (On the border, the flight of 

Cardinal de' Medici from Florence in 1494, disguised as a 
Franciscan Monk.) 

2. The Miraculous draught of Fishes. 

3. The Sacrifice at Lystra. 

4. St. Paul preaching at Athens. 

5. The Saviour and Mary Magdalene. 

6. The Supper at Emmaus. 

7. The Presentation in the Temple. 

8. The Adoration of the Shepherds. 

9. The Ascension. 

10. The Adoration of the Magi. 

11. The Resurrection. 

12. The Day of Pentecost. 

Returning, on the right wall, are : 

1. An Allegorical Composition of the Triumph of Religion (by 

Van Orley and other pupils of Raphael). 

2. The vStoning of Stephen (on the border the return of the Car- 

dinal de' Medici to Florence as Legate). 

3. Elymas the Sorcerer ( ? — removed 1869-70). 

4. 5, 6. Massacre of the Innocents. 

7. (Smaller than the others.) Christ falling under the Cross. 

8. Christ appearing to his disciples on the shore of the Lake of 

Galilee. 

9. Peter and John healing the lame man. 
10. The Conversion of St. Paul. 

The Arazzi were long used as church decorations on high 
festivals. 

"On Corpus-Christi Day I learnt the true destination of the Tapestries, 
when they transformed colonnades and open spaces into handsome halls 
and corridors : and while they placed before us the power of the most 



568 WALKS IN ROME. 

gifted of men, they gave us at the same time the happiest example of art 
and handicraft, each in its highest perfection, meeting for mutual com- 
pletion.' ' — Goethe. 

The Library of the Vatican is shown from 12 to 3, except 
on Sundays and festivals, but the visitor is hurried through 
in a crowd by a custode, and there is no time for examina- 
tion of the individual objects. The entrance is by a door 
on the left at the end of the Galleria Lapidaria, which leads 
to the museum of statues. The Papal Library was founded 
by the early popes at the Lateran. The Public Library 
was begun by Nicholas V., and greatly increased under 
Sixtus IV. (1475) ^^d Sixtus V. (1588), who built the pre- 
sent halls for the collection. In 1623 the library was 
increased by the gift of the " Bibliotheca Palatina " of 
Heidelberg, captured by Tilly from Maximilian of Bavaria ; 
in 1657 by the " Bibliotheca Urbinas," founded by Federigo 
da Montefeltro; in 1690 by the " BibHotheca Reginensis," 
or " Alexandrina," which belonged to Christina of Sweden ; 
in 1746 by the Bibliotheca Ottoboniana, purchased by the 
Ottobuoni pope, Alexander VIIL The number of Greek, 
Latin, and Oriental MSS. in the collection has been reckoned 
at 23,580. 

The ante-chambers are hung with portraits of the Libra- 
rians ; — among them, in the first room, is that of Cardinal 
Mezzofanti, In this room are facsimiles of the columns 
found in the Triopium of Herodes Atticus (see the account 
of the Valle Caffarelli), of which the originals are at Naples. 
From the second ante-chamber we enter the Great Hall, 
220 feet long, decorated with frescoes by Scipione Gaetani, 
Cesare Nebbia, and others, — unimportant in themselves, 
but producing a rich general effect of colour. No books 
or MSS. are visible ; they are all enclosed in painted cup- 
boards, so that of a library there is no appearance whatever, 
and it is only disappointing to be told that in one cupboard 
are the MSS. of the Greek Testament of the fifth century, 
Virgil of the fifth, and Terence of the fourth centuries, 
and that another contains a Dante, with miniatures by 
Giulio Clovio,^ &c. Ranged along the middle of the hall 
are some of the handsome presents made to Pius IX. by 
different foreign potentates, including the Sbvres font, in 

• WW is buried by the altar of S. Pietro in Vincoli. 



APPARTAMENTI BORGIA. 569 

which the Prince Imperial was baptized, presented by 
Napoleon III., and some candelabra given by Napoleon I. 
to Pius VII. At the end of the hall, long corridors open 
out on either side. Turning to the left, the second room 
has two interesting frescoes — one representing St. Peter's 
as designed by Michael Angelo, the other the erection of 
the obelisk in the Piazza S. Pietro under Fontana. At 
the end of the third room are two ancient statues, said to 
represent Aristides, and Hippolytus Bishop of Porto. The 
fourth room is a museum of Christian antiquities, and con- 
tains, on the left, a collection of lamps and other small 
objects from the Catacombs ; on the right, some fine ivories 
by Guido daSpoleto, and a Deposition from the Cross attri- 
buted to Michael Afigelo. The room beyond this, painted 
by Raphael Me?igs, is called the Stanza dei Papiri, and is 
adorned with papyri of the fifth, sixth, and seventh cen- 
turies. The next room has an interesting collection of 
pictures, by early masters of the schools of Giotto, Giottino, 
Cimabue, and Fra Aiigelico. Here is a Prie Dieu, of carved 
oak and ivory, presented to Pius IX. by the four bishops of 
the province of Tours. 

At the end of this room, not generally shown, is the 
Chapel of St. Pius V, 

The Appartamenti Bof'gia, which are reached from 
hence, are only shown by a special permission, difficult to 
obtain. They consist of four rooms, which were built by 
Alexander VI., though their beautiful decorations were 
chiefly added by Leo X. The Jirst room is painted by 
Giovanni da Udine and Fierino del Vaga, and represents 
the course of the planets, — Jupiter drawn by eagles, Venus 
by doves, Diana (the moon) by nymphs, Mars by wolves, 
Mercury by cocks, Apollo (the sun) by horses, Saturn by 
dragons. These frescoes, executed at the time Michael 
Angelo was painting the Last Judgment, are interesting 
as the last revival under Clement VII. of the pagan art so 
popular in the papal palace under Leo X. 

The second room, painted by Fintnricehio, has beautiful 
lunettes of the Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, 
Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of the Holy Ghost, and 
Assumption of the Virgin. The ceiling of the third room 
has paintings by Finturicchio of the Martyrdom of St. Se- 
bastian ; the Visitation of St Elizabeth ; ^e Meeting of 



570 WALKS IN ROME, 

St. Anthony with St. Paul, the first hermit ; St. Catherine 
before Maximian ; the FHght of St. Barbara ; St. JuHan of 
Nicomedia; and, over the door, the Virgin and Child. 
This last picture is of curious historical interest, as a relic 
of the libertinism of the court of Alexander VI. (Rodrigo 
Borgia), the " figure of the Virgin being a faithful repre- 
sentation of Giulia Farnese, the too celebrated Vanozza," 
mistress of the pope, and mother of his children, Caesar 
and Lucrezia. '' She held upon her knees the infant Jesus, 
and Alexander knelt at her feet." 

The fourth room, also painted by Pinturicchio^ is adorned 
with allegorical figures of the Arts and Sciences, and of the 
Cardinal Virtues. 

"On the accession of the infamous Alexander VI., Pinturicchio was 
employed by him to paint the Appartamento Borgia, and a great 
number of rooms, both in the castle of S. Angelo and in the pontifical 
palace. The patronage of this pope was still more fatal to the arts than 
that of the Medici at Florence. The subjects represented in the castle 
of S. Angelo were drawn from the life of Alexander himself, and the 
portraits of his relations and friends were introduced thei-e, — amongst 
others, those of his brothers, sisters, and that of the infamous Ciesar 
Borgia. To all acquainted with the scandalous history of this family, 
this representation appeared a commemoration of their various crimes, 
and it was impossible to regard it in any other light, when, in addition 
to the publicity they affected to give to these scandalous excesses, they 
appeared desirous of making art itself their accomplice ; and by an 
excess of profanation hitherto unexampled in the Catholic world, 
Alexander VI. caused himself to be represented, in a room in the 
Vatican, in the costume of one of the Magi, kneeling before the holy 
Virgin, whose head was no other than the portrait of the beautiful 
Giulia Farnese ('Vanozza'), whose adventures are unfortunately too 
well known. We inay indeed say that the walls have in this case made 
up for the silence of the courtiers : for on them was traced, for the benefit 
of contemporaries and posterity, an undeniable proof of the depravity 
of the age. 

" At the sight of that Appartamento Borgia, which is entirely painted 
by Pinturicchio, we shall experience a sort of satisfaction in discovering 
the inferiority of this purely mercenary work, as compared with the other 
productions of the same artist, and we cannot but rejoice that it is so 
unworthy of him. Such an ignoble task was not adapted to an artist 
of the Umbrian school, and there is good reason to believe that, after 
this act of servility, Pinturicchio became disgusted with Rome, and re- 
turned to the mountains of Umbria, in search of nobler inspirations." — 
Rio. Poetry of Christian Art. 

A door on the right of the room with the old pictures 
opens into a room containing a very interesting collection 
of ancient frescoes. On the right wall is the celebrated 



ETRUSCAN MUSEUM. 571 

*^ Nozze Aldobrandini" found in 1606* in some ruins 
belonging to the baths of Titus near the arch of Gal- 
lienus on the EsquiUne, and considered to be the finest 
specimen of ancient pictorial art in Rome. It was pur- 
chased at first by the Aldobrandini family, whence its 
name. It represents an ancient Greek ceremony, possibly 
the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis. There is a fine copy 
by Nicholas Poussin in the Doria Palace. 

*' S'il fait allusion a un sujet mythologique, le reel y est a cote de 
I'ideal, et la mythologie y est appliquee a la representation d'un mariage 
ordinaire. Tout porte a y voir une peinture romaine, mais I'auteur 
s'etait inspire des Grecs, comme on s'en inspirait presque toujours a 
Rome. La nouvelle mariee, assise sur le lit nuptial et attendant son 
epoux, a cette expression de pudeur virginale, d'embarras modeste, qui 
avait rendu celebre un tableau dont le sujet etait le mariage de Roxane et 
I'auteur .^tion, peintre grec." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. iv. 127. 

Opposite to this is a Race of the Cupids, from Ostia. 
The other frescoes in this room were found in the ruins on 
the Esquiline and at the Torre di Marancia. 



The Etruscan Museum can be visited on application to 
the custode, every day except Monday, from 10 to 2. It 
is reached by the staircase which passes the entrance to 
the Gallery of Candelabra : after which one must ring at a 
closed door on the right. 

" This magnificent collection is principally the fruit of the excavating 
partnership established, some twelve or fifteen years since, between the 
Papal government and the Campanari of Toscanella ; and will render 
the memory of Gregory XVI., who forwarded its formation with more 
zeal than he ordinarily displayed, ever honoured by all interested in 
antiquarian science. As the excavations were made in the neighbour- 
hood of Vulci, most of the articles are from that necropolis ; yet the 
collection has been considerably enlarged by the addition of others pre- 
viously in the possession of the government, and still more by recent 
acquisitions from the Etruscan cemeteries of Cervetri, Corneto, 
Bomarzo, Orte, Toscanella, and other sites within the Papal domi- 
nions." — Dennis. 

The \st Room- 

Contains three sarcophagi of terra-cotta from Toscanella, with three 
life-size figures reposing upon them. Their extreme length is remark- 
able. The figure on the left wears a fillet, indicating priesthood. The 
head of the family was almost always priest or priestess. Most of the 
objects in terra-cotta, which have been discovered, come from Toscanella. 

• Goumerie, Rome Chrgtienne, ii. 62. 

3 P 



572 WALKS IN ROME. 

The two horses' heads in this room, in nenfro, i.e. volcanic tufa, were 
found at the entrance of a tomb at Vulci. 

The 2nd Room — 

Is a corridor filled with cinerary urns, chiefly from Volterra, bearing 
recumbent figures, ludicrously stunted. The large sarcophagus on the 
left supports the bearded figure of a man, and is adorned with reliefs 
of a figure in a chariot and musicians painted red. The urns in this 
room are of alabaster, which is the characteristic of Volterra. 

The yd Room — 

Has in the centre a large sarcophagus of nenfro, found at Tarquinii, in 
1834, supporting a reclining figure of a Lucumo, with a scroll in his 
hand, " recalling the monuments of the middle ages." At the sides are 
reliefs representing the story of Clytemnestra and ^gisthus, — the 
Theban brothers, — the sacrifice of Clytemnestra, — and Pyrrhus slaying 
the infant Astyanax. In this room is a slab with a bilingual inscription, 
in Latin and Umbrian, from Todi. In the comers are some curious 
cineraiy urns shaped like houses. 

The 4th Room — 

Is the Chamber of Terra-cottas, In the centre is a most beautiful 
statue of Mercury found at Tivoli. At the sides are fragments of female 
figures from Vulci, — and an interesting terra-cotta uni from Toscanella, 
with a youth lying on a couch. " From the gash in his thigh, and the 
hound at his bed-side, he is usually called Adonis ; but it may be merely 
the effigy of some young Etruscan, who met his death in the wild-boar 
chase." 

The sth Room.— 

This and the three following rooms are occupied by Vases. The 
vases in the 5th room are mostly small amphorae, in the second or 
Archaic style, with black figures on the ground of the clay. On a 
column, near the window, is a C7-ater, or mixing-vase, from Vulci, with 
parti-coloured figures on a very pale ground, and in the most beautiful 
style of Greek art. It represents Mercury presenting the infant Bacchus 
to Silenus. To the left of the window is a humorous representation 
of the visit of Jupiter and Mercury to Alcmena, who is looking at 
them out of a window. In the cabinets are objects in crystal from 
Palestrina. 

77ie 6th Room.— 

In the centre of this room are five magnificent vases. The central, from 
Cervetri, " is of the rare form called Holmos — a large globe-shaped bowl 
on a tall stand, like an enormous cup and ball ; " its paintings are of wild 
animals. Nearest the entrance is, with three handles, " a Calpis, of the 
third or perfect style," from Vulci, with paintings of Apollo and six 
Muses. Behind this, from Vulci, is "a large Anipho7'a of the second or 
Archaic style," in which hardness and severity of design are combined 
with most conscientious execution of detail. It represents Achilles 
( "Achilleos") and Ajax(**Aiantos") playing atdice, oxastralagi. Achilles 
cries " Four ! " and Ajax "Three ! " — the said words, in choice Attic, 



ETRUSCAN MUSEUM. 573 

issuing from their mouths. The maker's name, ** Echsekias," is recorded, 
as well as that of " the brave Onetorides " to whom it was presented. On 
the other side of the vase is a family scene of " Kastor " with his horse, 
and " Poludeukes " playing with his dog, "Tyndareos" and "Leda" 
standing by. 4th, is an Amphora from Caere, representing the body of 
Achilles borne to Peleus and Thetis. 5th, is a Calpis from Vulci, 
representing the death of Hector in the arms of Minerva. 

The 6th vase on the shelf of the entrance wall is the kind of 
amphora called a Felice, from Caere. " Two men are represented sitting 
under an olive-tree, each with an amphora at his feet," and one who is 
measuring the oil exclaims, " O father Jupiter, would that I were rich ! " 
On the reverse of the vase is the same pair, at a subsequent period, 
when the prayer has been heard, and the oil-dealer cries, ' ' Verily, yea, 
verily, it hath been filled to overflowing." By the window is a Calpis^ 
representing a boy with a hoop in one hand, and a stolen cock in the 
other, for which his tutor is reproving him. 

TJie "jth Room — 

Is an arched corridor. In the second niche, Hydria with Minerva 
and Hercules, from Vulci. Sixth on the line, is an Amphora from Vulci ; 
*' 'Ekabe ' (Hecuba) presents a goblet to her son, * the brave Hector,' 
— and regards him with such intense interest, that she spills the wine as 
she pours it out to him. ' Priamos ' stands by, leaning on his staff, 
looking mournfully at his son, as if presaging his fate." Many other 
vases in this room are of great beauty. 

The %th Room— 

"Contains Cylices ox Patera, which are more rare than the upright 
vases, and not inferior in beauty." 

The ^th Room — 

Entered from the 6th room, is the jewel room. Among the bronzes 
on the right, is a warrior in armour found at Todi in 1835 and a bronze 
couch with a raised place for the head, found in the Regulini Galassi 
tomb at Cervetri, where it bore the corpse of a high priest. A boy with 
a bulla, sitting, from Tarquinii, is "supposed to represent Tages, the 
mysterious boy-god, who sprung from the furrows of that site," 

At the opposite end of the room is a biga or war-chariot, not 
Etruscan, but Roman, found in the villa of the Quintilii, near the Via 
Appia. Near this are some colossal fragments of bronze statues, found 
near Civita Vecchia. A beautiful oval Cista, with a handle formed by 
two swans bearing a boy and a girl, is from Vulci ; and so are the braziers 
or censers retaining the tongs, shovel, and rake, found with them : — "the 
tongs are on wheels, and terminate in serpents' heads ; the shovel 
handle ends in a swan's neck ; and the rake in a human hand." Among 
the smaller relics are a curious bottle from Caere, with an Etruscan 
alphabet and spelling lesson (!) scratched upon it, and a pair of Etruscan 
clogs found in a tomb at Vulci. 

In the centre of the room is the jewel-case of glass. The whole of 
the upper division and one compartment of the lower are devoted to 
Cervetri (Caere). All these objects are from the Regulini Galassi tomb, 
for all the other tombs had been rifled at an early period, except one, 



574 WALICS IN ROME. 

whence the objects were taken by Campana. The magnificent oak- 
wreath with the small ornaments and the large ear-rings were worn by 
a lady, over whom was written in Etruscan characters, " Me Larthia,'' 
— I, the Great Lady, — evidently because at the time of her death, 3000 
years ago, it was supposed that she was so very great that the memory 
of her name could never by any possibility perish, and that therefore it 
was quite unnecessary to record it. The tomb was divided, and she was 
walled up with precious spices (showing what the commerce of Etruria 
must have been) in one half of it. It was several hundred years before 
any one was found of sufficient dignity to occupy the other half of the 
great lady's tomb. Then the high priest of Etruria died, and was buried 
there with all his ornaments. His were the large bracelets, the fillets 
for the head, with the plate of gold,- covering the head, and a second 
plate of gold which covered the forehead — worn only on the most 
solemn occasions. This may be considered to have been the headdress 
of Aaron. His also was the broad plate of gold, covering the breast, 
reminding of the Urim and Thummim. The bronze bed on which he 
lay (and on which the ornaments were found lying where the body had 
mouldered) is preserved in another part of the room, and the great 
incense burner filled with precious spices which was found by his side. 
The three large bollas on his breast were filled with incense, whose per- 
fume was still so strong when the tomb was opened, that those who 
burnt it could not remain in the room. 

The ivy leaves on the ornaments denote the worship of Bacchus, 
a late period in Etruria : laurel denotes a victor in battle or the 
games. 

The 10th Room — 

(Entrance on right of the jewel-room), is a passage containing a 
number of Roman water-pipes of lead, and the bronze figure of a boy 
with a bird and an Etruscan inscription on his leg, from Perugia. 

The 11th Room — 

Is hung with paintings on canvas copied from the principal tombs of 
Vulci and Tarquinii. Beginning from the right, on entering, they take 
the following order : 

From the Camera del Morto : Tarquinii. 

From the Grotta delle Bighe, or Grotta Stackelberg : Tarquinii. 

From the Grotta Querciola : Tarquinii. 

From the Grotta della Iscrizioni : Tarquinii. 

From the Grotta del Triclinio, or Grotta Marzi : Tarquinii. 

From the Grotta del Barone, or Grotta del Ministro : Tarquinii. 

From the painted tomb at Vulci. 

"All the paintings from Tarquinii are still to be seen on that site, 
though not in so perfect a state as they are here represented. But the 
tomb at Vulci is utterly destroyed." 

Each of the paintings is most interesting. That of the death-bed 
scene proves that the Etruscans believed in the immortality of the soul. 
In the upper division a daughter is mounting on a stool to reach the 
high bed and give a last kiss to her dying father, while the son is wailing 
and lamenting in the background. Below, is the rejoicing spirit, freed 
from the trammels of the flesh. 



EGYPTIAN MUSEUM, 575 

In the scenes representing the games, the horses are painted bright 
red and bright blue, or black and red. These may be considered to 
have been the different colours of the rival parties. A number of jars 
for oil and wine are arranged in this room. All the black pottery is 
from Northern Etruria. 

The 12th Room (entered from the left of the jewel room) 
is a very meagre and most inefficient facsimile of an ordinary- 
Etruscan tomb. It is guarded by two lions in nenfro, found 
at Vulci.* 

The Egyptian Museum is entered by a door on the left 
of the entrance of the Museo Pio-Clementino. It is open 
gratis on Mondays from 12 to 3. The collection is chiefly 
due to Pius VII. and Gregory XVI. The greater part is 
of no especial importance. 

The 6th Room contains eight statues of the goddess Pasht 
from Carnac. 

The ^th Room is occupied by Roman imitations of 
Egyptian statues, from the Villa Adriana. 

** Ces statues sont toutes des traductions de I'art egyptien en art grec. 
L' alliance, la fusion de la sculpture egyptienne et de la sculpture greco- 
romaine est un des traits les plus saillantes de cosmopolitisme si etranger 
a d'anciennes traditions nationales, et dont Adrien, par ses voyages, ses 
gouts, ces monuments, fut la plus eclatante manifestation. 

*' Sauf 1' Antinolis, les produits de cette sculpture d'imitation bien que 
datant d'une epoque encore brillante de I'art remain, ne sauraient le 
disputer a leurs modeles. Pour s'en convaincre, il sufifit de les com- 
parer aux statues vraiment egyptiennes qui remplissent une salle 
voisine. Dans celles-ci, la realite du detail est meprisee et sacrifice ; 
mais les traits fondamentaux, les lineaments essentiels de la forme sont 
rendus admirablement. De la un grand style, car employer 1' expression 
la plus generale, c'est le secret de la grandeur du style, comme a dit 
Buffon. Cette elevation, cette sobriete du genie egyptien ne se retrou- 
vent plus dans les imitations batardes du temps d' Adrien." — Ampere, 
Emp. ii. 197, 202. 

On the right is the Nile in black marble ; opposite the 
entrance is a colossal statue of Antinous, the favourite of 
Hadrian, in white marble. 

"II est naturel qu'Antinoiis, qui s'etait, disait-on, precipite dans le 
Nil, ait ete represente sous les traits d'un dieu egyptien .... La 
physiognomic triste d' Antinous sied bien a un dieu d'Egypte, et le style 
grec emprunte au reflet du style egyptien une grandeur sombre." — 
Ampere, Emp. ii. 196. 

* For a detailed account of this collection, see Dennis' " Cities and Cemeteries 
of Etniria," whence many of the quotations above are taken ; also Mrs. Hamilton 
Gray's " Cities of Etruria." 



576 WALICS IN ROME. 

The 9th Room contains colossal Egyptian statues. On 
the right is the figure of the mother of Rhamses II. (Sesos- 
tris) between two lions of basalt, which were found in the 
Baths of Agrippa, and which long decorated the Fontana 
dei Termini. Upon the base of these lions is inscribed the 
name of the Egyptian king Nectanebo. 

'* Dans cette sculpture bien eg^'^ptienne, on sent deja le souffle de I'art 
grec. La pose de ces lions est la pose roide et monumentale des lions 
a tete humaine de Louqsor ; la ciiniere est encore de convention, mais 
la vie est exprimee, les muscles sont accuses avec un soin et un relief 
que la sculpture purement egyptienne n'a pas connus." — Ampere, Emp. 
ii. 198. 

** Ces lions ont une expression remarquable de force et de repos; il y 
a quelque chose dans leur physiognomie qui n'appartient ni a I'animal 
ni a rhomme: ils semblent une puissance de la nature, et Ton con9oit, en 
les voyant, comment les dieux du paganisme pduvaient etre representes 
sous cet embleme," — Mad. de Stael. 

In the centre of the entrance-wall are, Ptolemy-Philadel- 
phus, and, on his left, his queen Arsino, of red granite. 
These were found in the gardens of Sallust, and were 
formerly preserved in the Senator's Palace. 

"There is a fine collection of Eg}'ptian antiquities in the Vatican; 
and the ceilings of the rooms in which they are arranged, are painted to 
represent a starlight sky in the desert. It may seem an odd idea, but 
it is very effective. The grim, half-human monsters from the temples, 
look more grim and monstrous underneath the deep dark blue; it sheds 
a strange uncertain gloomy air on everything — a mystery adapted to the 
objects; and you leave them, as you find them, shrouded in a solemn 
night." — Dickens. 

The Egyptian Gallery has an egress into the Sala a Croce 
Greca. 



The windows of the Egyptian Museum look upon the 
inner Garden of the Vatica?i, which may be reached b}' a 
door at the end of the long gallery of the Museo Chiaramonti, 
before ascending to the Torso. The garden which is thus 
entered, called Giardijio della Pigna, is in fact merely the 
second great quadrangle of the Vatican, planted with shrubs 
and flowers. Several interesting relics are preserved here. 
In the centre is the Pedestal of the Column of Antoninus 
Pius, found in 1709 on the Monte Citorio. The column 
was a simple memorial pillar of granite, erected by the two 
adopted sons of the emperor, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius 
Verus. It was broken up to mend the obelisk of Psam- 



GARDENS OF THE VATICAN. «;77 

meticus I. at the Monte Citorio. Among the reliefs of the 
pedestal is one of a winged genius guiding Antoninus and 
Faustina to Olympus. In the great semicircular niche of 
Bramante, at the end of the court-garden, is the famous i^/^;/^, 
a gigantic fir-cone, which once crowned the summit of the 
Mausoleum of Hadrian. Thence it was first removed to the 
front of the old basilica of St. Peter's. In the fresco of 
the old St. Peter's at S. Martino al Monte, the pigna is 
introduced, but it is there placed in the centre of the nave, 
a position it never occupied. Dante saw it at St. Peter's, 
and compares it to a giant's head (it is eleven feet high) 
which he saw through the mist in the last circle of hell. 

"La faccia mi parea lunga e grossa 
Come la pina di S. Pietro in Roma." 

On either side of the pigna are two bronze peacocks, 
which are said to have stood on either side the entrance of 
Hadrian's Mausoleum. 

"Je pense qu'ils y avaient ete places en I'honneur des imperatrices 
dont les cendres devaient s'y trouver. La paon consacre a Jmion etait 
le symbole de I'apotheose des imperatrices, comme I'oiseau dedie k 
Jupiter celui de I'apotheose des empereurs, car le mausolee d'Adrien 
n'etait pas pour lui seul, mais, comme avaient ete le mausolee d' Augusta 
et le temple des Flaviens, pour toute la famille imperiale." — Ampere^ 
Emp. ii. 212. 

A flight of Steps leads from this court to the narrow 
Terrace of the Navicella, in front of the palace, so called from 
a bronze ship with which its fountain is decorated. The 
visitor should beware of the tricksome water-works upon 
this terrace. 

Beyond the courtyard is the entrance to the larger garden, 
which may be reached in a carriage by those who do not 
wish to visit the palace on the way, by driving round through 
the courts at the back of St. Peter's. It is always open till 
2 P.M., after which hour the pope goes there to walk, or to 
ride upon his white mule. It is a most delightful retreat for 
the hot days of May and June, and before that time its 
woods are carpeted with wild violets and anemones. No one 
who has not visited them can form any idea of the beauty 
of these ancient groves, interspersed with fountains and 
statues, but otherwise left to nature, and forming a fragment 
of sylvan scenery quite unassociated with the English idea 



5 78 WALKS IN ROME . 

of a garden. They are backed by the walls of the Borgo, 
and a fine old tower of the time of Leo IV. The Casino 
del Papa, or Villa Pia,* built by Pius IV. in the lower and 
more cultivated portion of the ground, is the chef-d'oeuvre 
of the architect, Pirro Ligorio, and is decorated with paint- 
ings by Baroccio, Zticchero, and Santi di Tito, and a set of 
terra-cotta reliefs collected by Agincourt and Canova. The 
shell decorations are pretty and curious. 

During the hours which he spent daily in this villa, its 
founder Pius IV. enjoyed that easy and simple life for which 
he was far better fitted by nature than for the affairs of 
government ; but here also he received the counsels of his 
nephew S. Carlo Borromeo, who, summoned to Rome in 
1560, became for several succeeding years the real ruler of 
the state. Here he assembled around him all those who 
were distinguished by their virtue or talents, and held many 
of the meetings which received the name of Notte Vaticant 
— at first employed in the pursuit of philosophy and poetry, 
but — after the necessity of Church reform became apparent 
both to the pope and to S. Carlo — entirely devoted to the 
discussion of sacred subjects. In this villa the late popes, 
Pius VIII. and Gregory XVI., used frequently to give their 
audiences. 

The sixteenth century was the golden age for the Vatican. 
Then the splendid court of Leo X..was the centre of ar- 
tistic and literary life, and the witty and pleasure-loving 
pope made these gardens the scene of his banquets and 
concerts ; and, in a circle to which ladies were admitted, as 
in a secular court, Hstened to the recitations of the poets 
who sprang up under his protection, beneath the shadow of 
its woods. 

*'Le Vatican etait encombre, sous Leon X., d'historiens, de savants, 
de poetes surtout. ' La tourbe importune des poetes,' s'ecrie Valerianus, 
' le poursuit de porte en porte, tantot sous les portiques, tantot a la pro- 
menade, tantot au palais, tantot ^ la chambre, penetralihus in imis ; elle 
ne respecte ni son repos, ni les graves affaires qui I'occupent aujourd'- 
hui que I'incendie ravage le monde.' On remarquait dans cette foule : 
Berni, le poete burlesque ; Flaminio, le poete elegiaque ; Molza, ■ 
r enfant de Petrarque, et Postumo, Maroni, Carteromachus, Fedra 
Inghirami, le savant bibliothecaire, et la grande lumiere d^ArezzOy 
fomme dit I'Arioste, Fuuique Accolti. Accolti jouit pendant toute 

* Vasari calls it Palazzo nel Bosco del Belvedere. 



THE LOGGIE, 579 

la duree du seizieme siecle d'une reputation que l.i posterite n'a pas 
confirmee. On I'appelait le celeste. Lorsqu'il devait reciter ces vers, 
les magasins etaient fermes comme en un jour de fete, et chacun 
accourait pour I'entendre. II etait entoure de prelats de la premiere 
distinction ; un corps de troupes suisses I'accompagnait, et I'auditoire 
etait eclaire par des flambeaux. Un jour qu'Accolti entrait chez le 
pape : — Ouvrez toutesles portes, s'ecria Leon, et laissez entrer la foule. 
Accolti recita un ternale a la Vierge, et, quand il eut fini, mille ac- 
clamations retentirent : Vive le poete divin, vive P incomparable Accolti ! 
Leon etait le premier a applaudir, et le duche de Nessi devenait la re- 
compense du poete. 

" Une autre fois, c'etait Paul Jove, I'homme aux oui-dires, comme 
I'appelle Rabelais, qui venait lire des fragments de son histoire, et que 
Leon X. saluait du titre de Tite-Live italien, II y avait dans ces eloges, 
dans ces encouragements donnes avec entrainement, mais avec tact, je 
ne sais quel souffle de vie pour I'intelligence, qui I'activait et qui lui 
faisait rendre au centuple les dons qu'elle avait re9us du ciel. Rome 
entiere etait devenue un musee, une academie ; partout des chants, par- 
tout la science, la poesie, les beaux-arts, une sorte de volupte dans 
I'etude. Ici, c'est Calcagnini, qui a deja devine la rotation de la terre ; 
la, Ambrogio de Pise, qui parle chaldeen et arabe ; plus loin, Valerianus, 
que la philologie, I'archeologie, la jurispinidence revendiquent a la fois, 
et qui se distrait de ses doctes travaux par des poesies dignesd' Horace." 
— Gournerie, Rome Ckretienne, ii. 1 14. 



The Loggie of Raphael were reached, except on Mon- 
days, by the staircase on the left of the fountain in the 
Cortile S. Damaso. Two sides of the corridors on the 
second floor (formerly open) are decorated in stucco by 
Marco da Faenza and Paul Schnorr and painted by Siccio- 
lante da Sermoneta^ Tempesta, Sabbatini, and others. The 
third corridor, entered on the right (opened by a custode), 
contains the celebrated frescoes, executed by Raphael, or 
from the designs of Raphael, by Giulio Romano, Pierino del 
Vaga, Pellegrino da Modena, Francesco Penni, and Raffaello 
da Colle. Of the fifty-two subjects represented, forty-eight 
are from the Old Testament, only the four last being from the 
Gospel History, as an appropriate introduction to the pictures 
which celebrate the foundation and triumphs of the Church, in 
the adjoining stanze. The stucco decorations of the gallery 
are of exquisite beauty ; especially remarkable, perhaps, are 
those of the windows in the first arcade, where Raphael is 
represented drawing. — his pupils working from his designs, — 
and Fame celebrating his work. ■ The frescoes are arranged 
in the following order : 



58o 



IVALKS IN ROME. 



J:i Arcade. 

1. Creation of Light* 

2. Creation of Dry Land. 

3. Creation of the Sun and Moon. 

4. Creation of Animals. 

2nd Arcade. 

1. Creation of Eve. Raphael. 

2. The Fall. 

3. The Exile from Eden. 

4. The Consequence of the Fall. 

2)rd Arcade. 

1. Noah builds the Ark. 

2. The Deluge. 

3. The Coming forth from the Ark. 

4. The Sacrifice of Noah. 

4//4 Arcade. 

1. Abraham and Melchizedek. 

2. The Covenant of God with Abraham. 

3. Abraham and the three Angels. 

4. Lot's flight from Sodom. 

<^th Arcade. 

1. God appears to Isaac. 

2. Abimelech sees Isaac with Rebecca. 

3. Isaac gives Jacob the blessing. 

4. Isaac blesses Esau also. 

6M Arcade, 

1. Jacob's Ladder. 

2. Jacob meets Rachel. 

3. Jacob upbraids Laban. 

4. The journey of Jacob. 

']th Arcade. 

1. Joseph tells his dream. 

2. Joseph sold into Eg>'pt. 

3. Joseph and Potiphar's wife. 

4. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream. 

%th Arcade. 

1. The Finding of Moses. 

2. Moses and the Burning Bush. 

3. The Destruction of Pharaoh. 

4. Moses striking the rock. 






Raphael. 



Giulio Romano. 



Giulio Romano. 



Francesco Penni, 



Francesco Penni. 



Pellegrino da 
Modena. 



Giulio Romano. 



Giulio Romano. 



• " This is perhaps the grandest of the whole series. Here the Almighty is seen 
rending like a thunderbolt the thick shroud of fiery clouds, letting in that light under 
which his works were to spring into life." — Lady Enstlake. 



THE STANZE. 581 

^th Arcade. 

1. Moses receives the Tables of the Law. \ 

2. The Worship of the Golden Calf. ( i?cj?a^//^ da Colle. 

3. Moses breaks the 1 ables. I -^^ 

4. Moses kneels before the Pillar of Cloud. ) 

lolh Arcade. 

1. The Israelites cross the Jordan. \ 

2. The Fall of Jericho. \ p.^^^^ ^^^ y 

3. Joshua stays the course of the bun. ( * 

4. Joshua and Eleazer divide the Promised Land ) 

Wth Arcade. 

1. Samuel anoints David. \ 

2. David and Goliath. ( „•. • j.j rr^^^ 

3. The Triumph of David. ( ^^''"' "^'^ ^'^<^^- 

4. David sees Bathsheba. ) 

I2th Arcade. 

1. Zadok anoints Solomon. \ 

2. The Judgment of Solomon. {Pellegrino da 

3. The Coming of the Queen of Sheba. X Modena. 

4. The Building of the Temple. ) 

l3//z Acade. 

1. The Adoration of the Shepherds. \ 

2. The Coming of the Magi. f ^. ,. r, 

3. The Baptism of Christ. ( 
4- The Last Supper. ; 

"From the Sistine Chapel we went to Raphael's Loggie, and I 
hardly venture to say that we could scarcely bear to look at them. The 
eye was so educated and so enlarged by those grand forms and the glori- 
ous completeness of all their parts, that it could take no pleasure in the 
imaginative play of arabesques, and the scenes from Scripture, beauti- 
ful as they are, had lost their charm. To see these works often alter- 
nately and to compare them at leisure and without prejudice, must be 
a great pleasure, but all sympathy is at first one-sided." — Goethe, 
Romische Brief e. 

Close to the entrance of the Loggie is that of 
The Stanze^ three rooms decorated under Julius IL and 
Leo X. with frescoes by Raphael, for each of which he re- 
ceived 1 200 ducats. These rooms are approached through, — 
The Sala di Constantino., decorated under Clement VII. 
(Giuho di Medici) in 1523 — 34, after the death of Raphael, 
who however had prepared drawings for the frescoes, and 
had already executed in oil the two figures of Justice and 
Urbanity. The rest of the compositions, completed by 
his pupils, are in fresco. 

" Raphael se multiplie, il se prodigue, avec une fecondite de toutes les 



§82 WALKS IN ROME. 

heures. De jeunes disciples, admirateurs de son beau genie, le servent 
avec amour, et sont deja admis a I'honneur d'attacher leurs noms a 
quelques parties de ses magnifiques travaux. Le maitre leur distribue 
leur tache : a Jules Romain, le brillant colons des vetements et peut- 
^tre meme le dessin de quelques figures; au Fattore, a Jean d'Udine, 
les arabesques ; a frere Jean de Verone les clairs-obscurs des portes et 
des lambris qui doivent completer la decoration de ces spendides 
appartements. Et lui, que se reserve-t-il? — la pensee qui anime tout, le 
genie qui enfante et qui dirige." — Gotcriierie^ Rome Chretienne. 

Entrance Wall. — The Address of Constantine to his troops and the 
vision of the Fieiy Cross: Gmlio Romano. On the left, St. Peter be- 
tween the Church and Eternity, — on the right, Clement I. (the martyr) 
between Moderation and Gentleness. 

Right Wall.— The Battle of the Ponte MoUe and the Defeat of Max- 
entius by Constantine, designed by Raphael, and executed by Giulio 
Romano. On the left is Sylvester I. between Faith and Religion, on 
the right Urban I. (the friend of Cecilia) between Justice and Charity. 

Left Wall. — The donation of Rome by Constantine to Sylvester I. 
(a.D. 325), Raffaello da Cclle. (The head of Sylvester was a portrait of 
Clement VIl., the reigning pope; Count Castiglione the friend of 
Raphael, and Giulio Romano, are introduced amongst the attendants.) 
On the left, Sylvester I. with Fortitude ; on the right, Gregory VII. with 
Strength. 

Wall of Egress. — The supposititious Baptism of Constantine, interest- 
ing as pourtraying the interior of the Lateran baptister>' in the 15th 
century, by Francesco Penni, who has introduced his own portrait in 
a black dress and velvet cap. On left, is Damasus I. (A.D. 366 — 384), 
between Prudence and Peace ; on right, Leo I. (a.D. 440 — 462), 
between Innocence and Truth. The paintings on the socles represent 
scenes in the life of Constantine by Ginlio Roma?io. 

The Stanza d'Eliodoro, painted in 151 1 — 15 14, shows the 
Church triumphant over her enemies, and the miracles by 
-which its power has been attested. On the roof are four 
subjects from the Old Testament, — the Covenant with Abra- 
ham ; the Sacrifice of Isaac ; Jacob's dream : Moses at the 
burning bush. 

Entrance Wall. — Heliodorus driven out of the Temple (Maccabees 
iii.). In the background Onias the priest is represented praying for 
divine interposition ; — in the foreground Heliodorus, pursued by two 
avenging angels, is endeavouring to bear away the treasures of the Temple. 
Amid the group on the left is seen Julius II. in his chair of state, 
attended by his secretaries. One of the bearers rn front is Marc-Antonio 
Raimondi, the engraver of Raphael's designs. The man with the 
inscription, 'Jo. Petro de Folicariis Cremonen,' was secretary of briefs 
to Pope Julius. 

" Here you may almost fancy you hear the thundering approach of 
the heavenly warrior and the neighing of his steed ; while in the different 
groups who are plundering the treasures of the Temple, and in those 
who gaze intently on the sudden consternation of Heliodorus, without 
being able to divine its cause, we see the expression of terror, amaze- 



THE STANZE. 583 

ment, joy, hum lity, and every passion to which human nature is ex- 
posed." — Lanzi. 

Left Wall. — The Miracle of Bolsena. A priest at Bolsena, who 
refused to believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation, is convinced by 
the bleeding of the host. On the right kneels Julius II., with Cardinal 
Riario, founder of the Cancelleria. This was the last fresco executed by 
Raphael under Julius II. 

Right Wall, — Peter delivered from prison. A fresco by Pietro della 
Francesca was destroyed to make i-oom for this picture, which is said 
to have allusion to the liberation of Leo X., while Legate in Spain, 
after his capture at the battle of Ravenna. This fresco is considered 
especially remarkable for its four lights, those from the double repre- 
sentation of the angel, from the torch of the soldier, and from the 
moon. 

Wall of Egress. — The Flight of Attila, Leo I. (with the features of 
Leo X.) is represented on his white mule, with his cardinals, calling 
upon SS. Peter and Paul, who appear in the clouds, for aid against 
Attila. The Coliseum is seen in the background. 

The Stanza della Segnaiura is so called from a judicial 
assembly once held here. The frescoes in this chamber are 
illustrative of the Virtues of Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, 
and Jurisprudence, who are represented on the ceiling by 
Raphael, in the midst of arabesques by Sodoma. The 
square pictures by Raphael refer : — the Fall of Man to 
Theology; the Study of the Globe to Philosophy; the 
Flaying of Marsyas to Poetry ; and the Judgment of Solomon 
to Jurisprudence. 

Entrance Wall. — "The School of Athens." Raphael consulted 
Ariosto as to the arrangement of its 52 figures. In the centre, on the 
steps of a portico, are seen Plato and Aristotle, Plato pointing to heaven, 
and Aristotle to earth. On the left is Socrates conversing with his pupils, 
amongst whom is a young warrior, probably Alcibiades. Lying upon 
the steps in front is Diogenes. To his left Pythagoras is writing on his 
knee, and near him, with ink and pen, is Empedocles. The youth in the 
white mantle is Francesco Maria della Rovere, nephew of Julius 11. 
On the right, is Archimedes, drawing a geometrical problem upon the 
floor. The young man near him with uplifted hands is Federigo II., 
Duke of Mantua. Behind these are Zoroaster and Ptolemy, one with a 
terrestrial, the other with a celestial globe, addressing two figures which 
represent Raphael and his master Perugino. The drawing in brown 
upon tlie socle beneath this fresco, is by Pierino del Vaga, and repre- 
sents the death of Aichimedes. " 

Right Wall. — " Parnassus," Apollo surrounded by the Muses, on his 
right Homer, Virgil, and Dante. Below, on the right, Sappho, sup- 
posed to be addressing Corinna, Petrarch, Propertius, and Anacreon ; 
on the left, Pindar and Horace, Sannazzaro, Boccaccio, and others. Be- 
neath this, in grisaille, are, — Alexander placing the poems of Homer in 
the tomb of Achilles, — and Augustus preventing the burning of Virgil's 
Eneid. 



584 WALK'S i:V ROME. 

Left Wall. — Above the window are Prudence, Fortitude, and Tem- 
perance. On the left, Justinian delivers the Pandects to Tribonian. On 
the right, Gregory IX. (with the features of Julius II.) delivers the 
Decretals to a jurist ; — Cardinal de' Medici, afterwards Leo X., Car- 
dinal Farnese, aftenvards Paul III., and Cardinal del Monte, are repre- 
sented near the pope. In the socle beneath is Solon addressing the 
people of Athens. 

Wall of Egress. — " The Disputa," so called from an impression that it 
represents a Dispute upon the Sacrament. In the upper part of the 
composition the heavenly host are present ; — Christ between the Virgin 
and St. John Baptist ; — On the left, St. Peter, Adam, St. John, David, 
St. Stephen, and another ; — On the right, St. Paul, Abraham, St. James, 
Moses, St. Laurence, and St. George. Below is an altar surrounded by 
the Latin fathers, Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine. Near 
St. Augustine stand St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Anacletus with the 
palm of a martyr, and Cardinal Buonaventura reading. Those in front 
are Innocent III., and in the background Dante, near whom a monk in a 
black hood is pointed out as Savonarola. The Dominican on the 
extreme left is supposed to be Fra Angelico. The other figures are 
uncertain. 

*' Raphael a bien juge Dante en pla(^ant pamii les Theologiens, dans 
la Dispute du Saint Sacrement, celui pour la tombe duquel a ete ecr 
ce vers, aussi vrai qu'il est plat : 

' Theologus Dantes, nullius dogmatis expers.' " 

Ampere, Voyage Dantesque 

The chiaro-scuros on the socle beneath this fresco are by Pieritio del 
Vaga (added under Paul III.) and represent, I, A heathen sacrifice ; 2, 
St. Augvistine finding a child attempting to drain the sea ; 3, The 
Cumaean Sibyl and Augustus. 

*' Raphael commenced his work in the Vatican by painting the ceiling 
and the four walls of the room called della Segnatui-a, on the surface of 
which he had to represent four great compositions, which embraced the 
principal divisions of the encyclopaedia of that period ; namely. Theology, 
Philosophy, Poetry, and Jurisprudence. 

*' It will be conceived, that to an artist imbued with the traditions 
of the Umbrian school, the first of these subjects was an unparalleled 
piece of good fortune ; and Raphael, long familiar with the allegorical 
treatment of religious compositions, turned it here to the most admirable 
account ; and, not content with the suggestions of his own genius, he 
availed himself of all the instruction he could derive from the intelligence 
of others. From these combined inspirations resulted, to the eternal 
glory of the Catholic faith and of Christian art, a composition without a 
rival in the history of painting, and we may also add without a name ; 
for to call it lyric or epic is hot enough, unless, indeed, we mean, by 
using these expressions, to compare it with the allegorical epic of 
Dante, alone worthy to be ranked with this marvellous production of 
the pencil of Raphael. 

*' And let no one consider this praise as idle and groundless, for it is 
Raphael himself who forces the comparison upon us, by placing the 
figure of Dante among the favourite sons of the Muses ; and, what is 
still more striking, by draping the allegorical figure of Theology in the 



THE STANZE, ■ 585 

very colours in which Dante has represented Beatrice ; namely, the 
white veil, the red tunic, and the green mantle, while on her head he 
has placed the olive crown. 

" Of the four allegorical figures which occupy the compartments of 
the ceiling, and which were all painted immediately after Raphael's 
arrival in Rome, Theology and Poetry are incontestably the most re- 
markable. The latter would be easily distinguished by the calm inspir- 
ation of her glance, even were she without her wings, her starry crown, 
and her azure robe, all having allusion to the elevated region towards 
which it is her privilege to soar. The figure of Theology is quite as 
admirably suited to the subject she personifies ; she points to the upper 
part of the grand composition, which takes its name from her, and in 
which the artist has provided inexhaustible food for the sagacity and 
enthusiasm of the spectator. 

"This work consists of two grand divisions, — Heaven and Earth, — 
which are united to one another by that mystical bond, the Sacrament 
of the Eucharist. The personages whom the Church has most honoured 
for learning and holiness are ranged in picturesque and animated groups 
on either side of the altar, on which the consecrated wafer is exposed. 
St. Augustine dictates his thoughts to one of his disciples ; St. Gregory, 
in his pontifical robes, seems absorbed in the contemplation of celestial 
glory ; St. Ambrose, in a slightly different attitude, appears to be 
chaunting the Te Deum ; while St. Jerome, seated, rests his hands on 
a large book, which he holds on his knees. Pietro Lombardo, Duns 
Scotus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Anacletus, St. Buenaventura, and 
Innocent III. are no less happily characterised ; while, behind all these 
illustrious men, whom the Church and succeeding generations have 
agreed to honour, Raphael has ventured to introduce Dante with his 
laurel crown, and, with still greater boldness, the monk Savonarola, 
publicly burnt ten years before as a heretic, 

' ' In the glory, which forms the upper part of the picture, the Three 
Persons of the Trinity are represented, surrounded by patriarchs, 
apostles, and saints : it may, in fact, be considered in some sort as a 
resume of all the favourite compositions produced during the last hun- 
dred years by the Umbrian school. A great number of the types, and 
particularly those of Christ and the Virgin, are to be found in the earlier 
works of Raphael himself. The Umbrian artists, from having so long 
exclusively employed themselves on mystical subjects, had certainly 
attained to a marvellous perfection in the representation of celestial 
beatitude, and of those ineffable things of which it has been said that 
the heart of man cannot conceive them, far less, therefore, the pencil of 
man pourtray ; and Raphael, surpassing them in all, and even in this 
instance while surpassing himself, appears to have fixed the limits, 
beyond which Christian art, properly so called, has never since been 
able to advance." — Rio. Poetry of Christian Art. 

The Stanza of the hicendio del Borgo is decorated with 
frescoes illustrative of the triumphs of the Church from events 
in the reigns of Leo III. and Leo IV. The roof has four 
frescoes by Perugino illustrative of the Saviour in glory. 

Entrance Wall. — The Victory of Leo IV. over the Saracens at Ostia, 



586 IVALKS IN ROME. 

by Giovan7ii da Udine, from designs of Raphael. The pope is repre- 
sented with the features of Leo X. ; behind him are Cardinal Giulio de' 
Medici (Clement VII. ), Cardinal Bibbiena, and others. The castle of 
Ostia is seen in the background. Beneath are Ferdinand the Catholic 
and the Emperor Lothaire, by Polidoro da Caravaggio. 

Left Wall. — The " Incendio del Borgo," afire in the Leonine City 
in 847. In the background Leo IV. is seen in the portico of the old 
St. Peter's arresting with a cross the progress of the flames, on their ap- 
proach to the basilica. In the foreground is a group of fugitives, by 
Giulio Romano, resembling ^neas escaping from Troy with Anchises, 
followed by Ascanius and Creusa. Beneath are Godfrey de Bouillon 
and Astulf (Ethelwolf), the latter with the inscription : " Astulphus Rex 
sub Leone IV, Pont. Britanniam Beato Petro vectigalem fecit." 

Right Wall. — The Justification of Leo III. before Charlemagne, by 
Pierino del Vaga. The pope is a portrait of Leo X. , the emperor of 
Francis I. 

Wall of Egress. — The Coronation of Charlemagne in the old St. 
Peter's. Leo X. is again represented as Leo III., and Francis I. as 
Charlemagne. This fresco is partly by Raphael, partly by Pierino del 
Vaga. On the socle is Charlemagne, by Polidoro da Caravaggio. 

A Fifth Chamber ha.s been decorated under Pius IX. with 
frescoes by Fracassini, in honour of the recent dogma of the 
Immaculate Conception. The Proclamation of the Dogma ; 
the Adoration of the image of the Virgin ; and the Reception 
of the news by the Virgin in heaven, from an angelic mes- 
senger, are duly represented ! 

From the corner of the Sala del Constantino, a custode, if 
requested, will give access to the 

Cappella di Sa?i Lof'e?izo, a tiny chapel 'covered with fres- 
coes executed by Fra Angelico for Nicholas V. in 1447. 
The upper series represents events in the Hfe of St. 
Stephen. 

1. His Ordination by St. Peter. 

2. His Almsgiving. 

3. His Preaching. 

4. He is brought before the Council at Jerusalem ("his accuser has 

the dress and shaven crown of a monk "). 

5. He is dragged to Execution. 

6. He is Stoned. Saul is among the spectators. 

** Angelico has represented St. Stephen as a young man, beardless, 
and with a most mild and candid expression. His dress is the deacon's 
habit, of a vivid blue." — Ahs. Jameson. 

The lower series represents the life of St. 1 .aurence. 

1. He is ordained by Sixtus II. (with the feature^ of Nicholas V.). 

2. Sixtus II. delivars the treasures of the Church to him for distribu- 

tion among the poor. 

3. He Distributes them in Alms. 



CAPPELLj DI SAN LORENZO. 587 

4. He is carried before Dec: us the Prefect. 

5. He suffers Martyrdom A. D. 253. 

Introduced in the side arches, are the figures of St. Je- 
rome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. John 
Chrysostom, St, Athanasius, St. Leo— as the protector of 
Rome, and St. Thomas Aquinas — as painted by the Domi- 
nican Angehco, and for a Dominican pope Nicholas V. 

" The Consecration of St. Stephen, the Distribution of Alms, and, 
above all, his Preaching, are three pictures as perfect of their kind as 
any that have been produced by the greatest masters, and it would be 
difficult to imagine a group more happily conceived as to arrangement, 
or more graceful in form and attitude, than that of the seated females 
listening to the holy preacher ; and if the furious fanaticism of the exe- 
cutioners, who stone him to death, is not expressed with all the energy 
we could desire, this may be attributed to a glorious incapacity in this 
angelic imagination, too exclusively occupied with love and ecstasy to 
be ever able to familiarise itself with those dramatic scenes in which 
hateful and violent passions were to be represented." — Rio. Poetry of 
Christian Art. 

"The soul of Angelico lives in perpetual peace. Not seclusion from 
the world. No shutting out of the world is needful for him. There is 
nothing to shut out. Envy, lust, contention, discourtesy, are to him as 
though they were not ; and the cloister walls of Fiesole no penitential 
solitude, barred from the stir and joy of life, but a possessed land of 
tender blessing, guarded from the entrance of all but holiest sorrow. 
The little cell was as one of the houses of heaven prepared for him by 
his Master. What need had it to be elsewhere ? Was not the Val 
'Arno, with its olive woods in white blossom, paradise enough for a 
poor monk ? Or could Christ be indeed in heaven more than here ? 
Was He not always with him? Could he breathe or see, but that 
Christ breathed beside him, or looked into his eyes ? Under every 
cypress avenue the angels walked ; he had seen their white robes, — 
whiter than the dawn, — at his bedside, as he woke in early summer. 
They had sung with him, one on each side, when his voice failed for joy 
at sweet vesper and matin time ; his eyes were blinded by their wings 
in the sunset, when it sank behind the hills of Luni." — Ruskin's Modern 
Painters. 



The same staircase which is usually ascended to reach 
the Stanze (that on the left of the fountain in the Cortile 
S. Damaso) will also lead, by turning to the left in the 
loggia of the third floor, to : 

The Gallei-y of Pidw-es^ founded by Pius VII., who acted 
on the advice of Cardinal Gonsalvi and of Canova, and 
formed the present collection from the pictures which had 
been carried off by the French from the Roman churches, 
upon their restoration. The pictures have, to a great extent, 

2 Q 



588 WALKS IN ROME. 

been recently rearranged and are not all numbered. Each 
picture is worthy of separate examination. They are con- 
tained in four rooms, and according to their present posi- 
tion are : 

Tj-/ Room. — 
Entrance Wall : 

1. St. Jerome : Lcona7-do da Vinci, painted in bistre. 
l6, St. John Baptist : Gziercino. 

4. The Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, and Presenta- 

tion in the Temple : Raphael ; — formerly a predella to the 
Coronation of the Virgin in the third room. 

5. The dead Christ and Mary Magdalen ; Andrea Mantegna^ — 

from the Aldrovandi gallery at Bologna. 
7. Madonna with the Child and St. John : Fr. Francia. 

Right Wall : 

The Story of St. Nicolo of Bari : Fj-a Angelica da Fiesole, — 
two out of the three predella pictures once in the sacristy of 
S. Domenico at Florence, whence they were carried off to 
Paris, where the third remains. 
(Above,) The Adoration of the Shepherds : Murillo. 
The Virgin surrounded by Angels : Fra Angelica. 
3. The Story of St. Hyacinth : Benozzo Gozzoli. 

(Above,) The Marriage of St. Catherine : Murillo. 

2. "I Tre Santi : " Perugino. 

Part of a large predella in the church of S. Pietro Casinensi at Pe- 
rugia. Several saints from this predella still remain in the sacristy of 
S. Pietro ; two are at Lyons. 

*' In the centre is St. Benedict, Avith his black cowl over his head 
and long parted beard, the book in one hand, and the asperge in the 
other. On one side, St. Placidus, young, and with a mild, candid ex- 
pression, black habit and shaven crown. On the other side is St. 
Flavia (or St. Catherine ?), crowned as a martyr, holding her palm, and 
gazing upward with a divine expression." — Mrs. Jameson. 

(Above this) The Holy Family and Saints : Bonifazio. 

Left IVall.— The Dead Christ, with the Virgin, St. John, and the 
Magdalen lamenting : Ca7'lo Crivelli. 

Wall of Egress. — Faith, Hope, and Charity, Raphael: — circular 
medallions in bistre, Avhich once formed a predella for " the Entomb- 
ment" in the Borghese galleiy. 

27id Room. — 

Entrance Wall — The Communion of St. Jerome: Domenichino. This 
is the master-piece of the master, and perhaps second only to the Trans- 
figuration. It was painted for the monks of Ara Coeli, who quarrelled 
with the artist, and shut up the picture. Afterwards they commissioned 
Poussin to paint an altar-piece for their church, and, instead of supplying 
him with fresh canvas, produced the picture of Domenichino, and desired 
him to paint over it. Poussin indignantly threw up his engagement, 



THE COMMUNION OF ST. JEROME. 589 

and made known the existence of the picture, which was afterwards pre- 
served in the church of S, Girolamo della Carita, whence it was carried 
off by the French. vSt. Jei'ome, on his death-bed at Bethlehem, is 
represented receiving the Last Sacraments from St. Ephraim of Syria, 
while St. Paula kneels by his side. 

"The Last Communion of St. Jerome is the subject of one of the 
most celebrated pictures in the world, — the St. Jerome of Domenichino, 
which has been thought worthy of being placed opposite to the Trans- 
figuration of Raphael, in the Vatican. The aged saint, — feeble, ema- 
ciated, dying, — is borne in the arms of his disciples to the chapel of his 
monastery, and placed within the porch.* A young priest sustains him ; 
St. Paula, kneeling, kisses one of his thin bony hands ; the saint fixes 
his eager eyes on the countenance of the priest, who is about to admin- 
ister the Sacrament, — a noble, dignified figure in a rich ecclesiastical 
dress ; a deacon holds the cup, and an attendant priest the book ; the 
lion droops his head with an expression of grief ;+ the eyes and attention 
of all are on the dying saint, while four angels, hovering above, look 
down upon the scene." — Jameson^ s Sacred Aii. 

** And Jerome's death (a.d. 420) drawing near, he commanded that 
he should be laid on the bare ground and covered with sackcloth, and 
calling the brethren around him, he spake sweetly to them, and ex- 
horted them in many holy words, and appointed Eusebius to be their 
abbot in his room. And then, with tears, he received the blessed Eucha- 
rist, and sinking backwards again on the earth, his hands crossed on his 
heart, he sung the 'Nunc Dimittis,' which being finished, it being the 
hour of compline, suddenly a great light, as of the noonday sun, shone 
round about him, within which light angels innumerable were seen by 
the bystanders, in shifting motion, like sparks among the dry reeds. 
And the voice of the Saviour was heard, inviting him to heaven, and the 
holy Doctor answered that he was ready. And after an hour, that light 
departed, and Jerome's spirit with it." — Lord Lindsay, from Peter de 
Natalibus. 

Right Wall. — "The Madonna di Foligno," Raphael, ordered in 151 1 
by Sigismondo Conti for the church of Ara Coeli (where he is buried), and 
removed in 1565 to Foligno, when his great-niece, Anna Conti, took 
the veil there at the convent of St' Anna. The angel in the foreground 
bears a tablet, with the names of the painter and donor, and the date 
15 12. The city of Foligno is seen in the background, with a falling 
bomb, from which one may believe that the picture was a votive offering 
from Sigismondo for an escape during a siege. The picture was origin- 
ally on panel, and was transferred to canvas at Paris. 

"The Madonna di Foligno, however beautiful in the whole arrange- 
ment, however excellent in the execution of separate parts, appears to 
belong to a transition state of development. There is something of the 
ecstatic enthusiasm which has produced such peculiar conceptions and 
treatment of religious "subjects in other artists — Correggio, for example — 
and which, so far from harmonizing with the unaffected serene grace of 

* The candle is ingeniously made crooked in the socket, not to interfere with the 
lines of the architecture, while the flame is straight. 

t "According to the 'Spiritual Meadow' of John Moschus, who died a.d. 620, 
the lion is said to have pined away after Jerome's death, and to have died at last on 
his grave. 



S90 WALK'S IX ROME. 

Raphael, has in this instance led to some serious defects. This remark 
is particularly applicable to the figures of St. John and St. Francis : the 
former looks out of the picture with a fantastic action, and the drawing 
of his arm is even considerably mannered. St. Francis has an expres- 
sion of fanatical ecstasy, and his countenance is strikingly weak in the 
painting (composed of reddish, yellowish, and grey tones, which cannot 
be wholly ascribed to their restorer). Again, St. Jerome looks up with 
a sort of fretful expression, in which it is difficult to recognise, as some 
do, a mournful resignation ; there is also an exaggerated style of drawing 
in the eyes, which sometimes gives a sharpness to the expression of 
Raphael's figures, and appears very marked in some of his other pictures. 
Lastly, the Madonna and the Child, who turn to the donor, are in atti- 
tudes which, however graceful, are not perhaps sufficiently tranquil for 
the majesty of the queen of heaven. The expression of the Madonna's 
countenance is extremely sweet, but with more of the character of a 
mere woman than of a glorified being. The figure of the donor, on the 
other hand, is excellent, with an expression of sincerity and truth ; the 
angel with the tablet is of unspeakable intensity and exquisite beauty 
• — one of the most marvellous figures that Raphael has created." — 
Kugler. 

"In the upper part of the composition sits the Virgin in heavenly 
glory ; by her side is the Infant Christ, partly sustained by his mother's 
veil, which is drawn round his body : both look down benignly on the 
votary, Sigismund Conti, who, kneeling below, gazes up with an expres- 
sion of the most intense gratitude and devotion. It is a portrait from the 
life, and certainly one of the finest and most life-like that exist in paint- 
ing. Behind him stands St. Jerome, who, placing his hand upon the 
head of the votary, seems to present him to his celestial protectress. 
On the other side, John the Baptist, the meagre wild-looking prophet of 
the desert, points upward to the Redeemer. More in front kneels St. 
Francis, who, while he looks up to heaven with trusting and imploring 
love, extends his right hand towards the worshippers supposed to be 
assembled in the church, recommending them also to the protecting 
grace of the Virgin. In the centre of the picture, dividing these two 
groups, stands a lovely angel-boy, holding in his hand a tablet, one of 
the most charming figures of this kind Raphael ever painted ; the head, 
looking up, has that sublime, yet perfectly childish grace, which strikes 
one in those awful angel-boys in the ' Madonna di San Sisto.' The back- 
ground is a landscape, in which appears the city of Foligno at a distance ; 
it is overshadowed by a storm-cloud, and a meteor is seen falling ; but 
above these bends a rainbow, pledge of peace and safety. The whole 
picture glows throughout with life and beauty, hallowed by that profound 
religious sentiment which suggested the offering, and which the sympa- 
thetic artist seems to have caught from the grateful donor. It was dedi- 
cated in the church of the Ara Cceli at Rome, which belongs to the 
Franciscans, hence St. Francis is one of the principal figures. When I 
was asked, at Rome, why St. Jerome had been introduced into the ' 
picture, I thought it might be thus accounted for : — The patron saint of 
the donor, St. Sigismund, was a king and warrior, and Conti might 
possil)ly think it did not accord with his profession, as a humble ecclesi- 
asti.-, to iiitrodiuc Iiini here. 'I"he most celebrated convent of the 
Ji-o lyir.itcs i:i It il / i^ that of St. Sigismund, near Cremona, placed 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. 591 

under the special protection of St. Jerome, who is also in a general sense 
the patron of all ecclesiastics ; hence, perhaps, he figures here as the 
protector of Sigismund Conti." — Jameson^ s Legends of the Madonna, 
p. 103. 

Wall of Egress. — "The Transfiguration : " Raphael. The grandest pic- 
ture in the world. It was originally painted by order of Cardinal Giulio 
de' Medici (afterwards Clement VII. ) Archbishop of Narbonne, for 
that provincial cathedral. But it was scarcely finished when Raphael 
died, and it hung over his death-bed as he lay in state, and was carried 
in his funeral procession. 

" And when all beheld 
Him where he lay, how changed from yesterday — 
Him in that hour cut off, and at his head 
His last great work ; when, entering in, theylook'd, 
Now on the dead, then on that masterpiece — 
NoAv on his face, lifeless and colourless. 
Then on those forms divine that lived and breathed, 
And would live on for ages — all were moved, 
And sighs burst forth and loudest lamentations." 

Rogers. 
The three following quotations may perhaps represent the practical, 
sesthetical, and spiritual aspects of the picture. 

" It is somewhat strange to see the whole picture of the Transfiguration 
— including the three apostles, prostrate on the mount, shading their 
dazzled senses from the insufferable brightness — occupying only a small 
part of the top of the canvas, and the principal field filled with a totally 
distinct and certainly unequalled picture — that of the demoniac boy, 
whom our Saviour cured on coming down from the mount, after his 
transfiguration. This was done in compliance with the orders of the 
monks of S. Pietro in Montorio, for which church it was painted. It 
was the universal custom of the age — the yet unbanished taste of Gothic 
days — to have two pictures, a celestial and a terrestrial one, wholly 
unconnected with each other ; accordingly, we see few, even of the 
finest paintings, in which there is not a heavenly subject above and an 
earthly below — for the great masters of that day, like our own Shaks- 
peare, were compelled to suit theii- works to the taste of their employers." 
— Eaton s Rome. 

*' It must ever be matter of wonder that any one can have doubted of 
the grand unity of such a conception as this. In the absence of th-e 
Lord, the disconsolate parents bring a possessed boy to the disciples of 
the Holy One. They seem to have been making attempts to cast out the 
Evil Spirit ; one has opened a book, to see whether by chance any 
spell were contained in it which might be successful against this plague, 
but in vain. At this moment appears He who alone has the power, 
and appears transfigured in glory. They remember His former mighty 
deeds ; they instantly point aloft to the vision as the only source of 
healing. How can the upper and lower parts be separated ? Both are 
one ; beneath is Suffering craving for Aid ; above is active Power and 
helpful Grace. Both refer to one another ; both work in one another. 
Those A'ho, in our dispute over the picture, thought with me, confirmed 
their view by this consideration : Raffaelle, they said, was ever distin- 
guished by the exquisite propriety of his conceptions. And is it likely 



592 WALKS IN ROME. 

that this painter, thus gifted by God, and everywhere recognisable by 
the excellence of this His gift, would in the full ripeness of Ins powers 
have thought and painted wrongly ? Not so ; he is, as nature is, ever 
right, and then most deeply and truly right when we least suspect it." — 
Goethe s Wej-ke, iii. p. 33. 

" In looking at the Transfiguration we must bear in mind that it is 
not an historical but a devotional picture, — that the intention of the 
painter was not to represent a scene, but to excite religious feelings by 
expressing, so far as painting might do it, a veiy sublime idea. 

"If we remove to a certain distance from the picture, so that the 
forms shall become vague, indistinct, and only the masses of colour and 
the light and shade perfectly distinguishable, we shall see that the 
picture is indeed divided as if horizontally, the upper half being all 
light, and the lower half comparatively all dark. As we approach 
nearer, step by step, we behold above, the radiant figure of the Saviour 
floating in mid-air, with arms outspread, garments of transparent light, 
glorified visage upturned as if in rapture, and the hair lifted and scat- 
tered as I have seen it in persons under the infliience of electricity. On 
the right, Moses ; on the left, Elijah ; representing respectively the old 
Law and the old Prophecies, which both testified of Him. The three 
disciples lie on the ground, terror-struck, dazzled. There is a sort of 
eminence or platform, but no perspective, no attempt at real locality, 
for the scene is revealed as in a vision, and the same soft transparent 
light envelopes the whole. This is the spiritual life, raised far above the 
earth, but not yet in heaven. Below is seen the earthly light, poor 
humanity struggling helplessly with pain, infirmity, and death. The 
father brings his son, the possessed, or as we should now say, the 
epileptic boy, who oftentimes falls into the water, or into the fire, or lies 
grovelling on the earth, foaming and gnashing his teeth ; the boy strag- 
gles in his arms, — the rolling eyes, the distorted features, the spasmodic 
limbs, are at once terrible and pitiful to look on. 

" Such is the profound, the heart-moving significance of this wonder- 
ful picture. It is, in truth, a fearful approximation of the most opposite 
things ; the mournful helplessness, suffering, and degradation of human 
nature, the unavailing pity, are placed in immediate contrast with 
spiritual light, life, hope, — nay, the veiy fruition of heavenly rapture. 

" It has been asked, who are the two figures, the two saintly deacons, 
who stand on each side of the upper group, and what have they to do 
with the mystery above, or the sorrow below ? Their presence shows 
that the whole was conceived as a vision, or a poem. The two saints 
are St. Laurence and St. Julian, placed there at the request of the Car- 
dinal de' Medici, for whom the picture was painted, to be offered by 
him as an act of devotion as well as munificence to his new bishopric ; 
and these two figures commemorate in a poetical way, not unusual at 
the time, his father, Lorenzo, and his uncle, Giuliano de' Medici. They 
would be better away ; but Raphael, in consenting to the wish of his 
patron that they should be introduced, left no doubt of the significance 
of the whole composition, that it is placed before worshippers as a re- 
velation of the double life of earthly suffering and spiritual faith, as an 
excitement to religious contemplation and religious hope. 

'* In the Gospel, the Transfiguration of Our Lord is first described, 
then the gathering of the people and the appeal of the father in behalf 



riTIAJSrS ''MADONNA AND SAINTS." 593 

of his afflicted son. They appear to have been simultaneous ; but paint- 
ing only could have placed them before our eyes, at the same moment, 
in all their suggestive contrast. It will be said that in the brief record 
of the Evangelist, this contrast is nowhere indicated, but the painter 
found it there and was right to use it, — ^just the same as if a man should 
choose a text from which to preach a sermon, and, in doing so, should 
evolve from the inspired words many teachings, many deep reasonings, 
besides those most obvious and apparent. 

" But, after we have prepared ourselves to understand and to take 
into our heads all that this wonderful picture can suggest, considered as 
an emanation of the mind, we find that it has other interests for us, con- 
sidered merely as a work of art. It was the last picture which came 
from Raphael's hand ; he was painting on it when he was seized with 
his last illness. He had completed all the upper part of the composi- 
tion, all the ethereal vision, but the lower part of it was still unfinished, 
and in this state the picture was hung over his bier ; when, after his 
death, he was laid out in his painting-room, and all his pupils and 
friends, and the people of Rome, came to look upon him for the last 
time ; and when those who stood round raised their eyes to the Trans- 
figuration, and then bent them on the lifeless form extended beneath it, 
'every heart was like to burst with grief {faceva scoppiare ranima di 
dolore a ogmmo che quivi giiardavd), as, indeed, Avell it might. 

"Two-thirds of the price of the picture, 655 * ducati di camera,' had 
already been paid by the Cardinal de' Medici, and, in the following 
year, that part of the picture which Raphael had left unfinished w^as 
completed by his pupil Giulio Romano, a powerful and gifted, but not a 
refined or elevated, genius. He supplied what was wanting \\\ the 
colours and chiaroscuro according to Raphael's design, but not certainly 
as Raphael himself would have done it. The sum which Giulio received 
he bestowed as a dowry on his sister, when he gave her in marriage to 
Lorenzetto the sculptor, who had been a friend and pupil of Raphael. 
The cardinal did not Send the picture to Narbonne, but, unwilling to 
deprive Rome of such a masterpiece, he presented it to the church of 
San Pietro in jMontorio, and sent in its stead the Raising of Lazarus, by 
Sebastian del Piombo, now in our National Gallery. The French carried 
off the Transfiguration to Paris in 1797, and when restored, it was 
placed in the Vatican, where it now is." — Mrs. jamesoJis History of Our 
Lord, vol. i. 

-^rd Foom. — 

Entrance Wall. — Madonna and Saints : Titian. 

"Titian's altar-piece is a specimen of his pictures of this class. St. 
Nicholas, in full episcopal costume, is gazing upwards with an air of 
inspiration. St. Peter is looking over his shoulder at a book, and a 
beautiful St. Catherine is on the other side. Farther behind, are St. 
Francis and St. Anthony of Padua ; on the left St. Sebastian, whose 
figure recurs in almost all of these pictures. Above, in the clouds, with 
angels, is the Madonna, who looks cheerfully on, while the lovely Child 
holds a wreath, as if ready to crown a votary." — Kiigler. 

" In this picture there are three stages, or whatever they are called, 
the same as in. the Transfiguration. Below, saints and martyrs are re- 
presented in suffering and abasement ; on every face is depicted sadness, 



594 WALKS IN ROME. 

nay, almost impatience ; one figure in rich episcopal robes looks up- 
wards, with the most eager and agonized longing, as if weeping, but he 
cannot see all that is floating above his head, but which xae see, standing 
in front of the picture. Above, Mary and her Child are in a cloud, 
radiant with joy, and surrounded by angels, who have woven many gar- 
lands ; the Holy Child holds one of these, and seems as if about to 
crown the saints beneath, but his Mother withholds his hand for the 
moment (?). The contrast between the pain and suffering below, 
whence St. Sebastian looks forth out of the picture with gloom and 
almost apathy, and the lofty unalloyed exultation in the clouds above, 
where crowns and palms are already awaiting him, is truly admirable. 
High above the group of Mary hovers the Holy Spirit, from whom 
emanates a bright streaming light, thus forming the apex of the whole 
composition. I have just remembered that Goethe, at the beginning of 
his first visit to Rome, describes and admires this picture ; and he speaks 
of it in considerable detail. It was at that time in the Quirinal." — 
MendelssoJui s Letters. 

Sta. Margherita da Cortona : Guercino. She is represented kneel- 
ing, — angels hovering above, — in the background is the Convent of 
Cortona. 

Right Wall: 

Martyrdom of St. I,aurence: Spagnoletto. 

22. The Magdalen, with angels bearing the instruments of the 

Passion : Guercino. 

23. The Coronation of the Virgin : Pinturicchio. 

24. The Resurrection : Perugino. The figures are sharply relieved 

against a bright green landscape and a perfectly green sky. 
The figure of the risen Saviour is in a raised gold nimbus 
surrounded by cherubs' heads, as in the fresco of Pintu- 
ricchio at the Ara Coeli. The escaping soldier is said to be 
a portrait of Perugino, introduced by Raphael, — the sleeping 
, soldier that of Raphael, by Perugino. 

25. **La Madonna di Monte Luco," designed by Raphael: the 

upper part painted by Giulio Poviano, the lower by Francesco 
Penni (11 Fattore). The apostles looking into the tomb of 
the Virgin, find it blooming with heartsease and ixias. 
Above, the Virgin is crowned amid the angels. There 
is a lovely landscape seen through a dark cave, which ends 
awkwardly in the black clouds. This picture was painted 
for the convent of Monte Luco near Spoleto, 
The Nativity : Giovanni Spagna. 

27. The Coronation of the Virgin : Raphael. The predella in the 

first room belonged to this picture, which was painted for the 
Benedictines of Perugia. 

28. The Virgin and Child enthroned under an arcade — with S. Lo- 

renzo, St. Louis, S. Ercolano, and S. Costanzo, standing: 
On the step of the throne is inscribed ' Hoc Petrus de 
Chastro Plebis Pinxit.' 

29. Virgin and Child : Sassofe^'rato. A fat mundane Infant and 

a coarse Virgin seated on a crescent moon. The Child 
holds a rosary. 



VA TIC AN PICTURE- CALLER Y. 595 

End Wall : 

The Entombment : Caravaggio. 

" Caravaggio's entombment of Christ is a picture wanting in all 
the characteristics of holy sublimity ; but is nevertheless full of 
solemnity, only perhaps too like the funeral solemnity of a gipsy 
chief. A figure of such natural sorrow as the Virgin, who is 
represented as exhausted with weeping, with her trembling out- 
stretched hands, has seldom been painted. Even as mother of a 
gipsy chief, she is dignified and touching." — Kugler. 

Left Wall (returning) : 

31. Doge A. Gritti {Titian), half-length, in a yellow robe. 

Two very large pictures in many compartments, by Niccolo Alumio, 
of the Crucifixion and Saints. (Between them) 

Sixtus IV. and his Court : Melozzo da Forli. A fresco, removed from 
the Vatican library by Leo XIL, which is a most interesting memorial of 
an important historical family. Near the figure of the pope, Sixtus IV., 
who is known to Roman travellers from his magnificent bronze tomb in 
the Chapel of the Sacrament at St. Peter's, stand two of his nephews, of 
whom one is Giuliano della Rovere, afterwards Julius II., and the other 
Pietro Riario, who, from the position of a humble Franciscan monk, was 
raised, in a few months, by his uncle, to be Bishop of Treviso, Car- 
dinalrArchbishop of Seville, Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop of 
Valentia, and Archbishop of Florence, when his life changed, and he lived 
with such extravagance, and gave banquets so magnificent, that "never 
had pagan antiquity seen anything like it ;" * but within two years "he 
died (not without suspicion of poison), to the great grief of Pope Sixtus, 
and to the infinite joy of the whole college of cardinals. "+ The kneeling 
figure represents Platina, the historian of the popes and prefect of the 
Vatican library. In the background stand two other nephews of the 
pope. Cardinal Giovanni della Rovere, and Girolamo Riario, who was 
married by his uncle (or father ?), the pope, to the famous Caterina 
Sforza, — was suspected of being the originator of the conspiracy of 
the Pazzi,--was created Count of Forli, and to whose aggrandisement 
Sixtus IV. sacrificed every principle of morality and justice : he was 
murdered at Forli, April 14th, 1488. Beneath is inscribed: 
" Templa domum expositis fora moenia pontes : 

Virgineam Trivii quod repax-aris aquam 
Prisca licet nautis statuas dare commoda portus : 

Et Vaticanum cingere Sixte jugum : 
Plus tamen urbs debet : nam quae squalore latebet. 

Germitur in celebri bibliotheca loco." 

4//^ Room. — 
Entrance Wall : 

32. The Martyrdom of SS. Processus and Martinianus, the gaolers 

of St. Peter : Valentin. It is stigmatised by Kugler as "an 
unimportant and bad picture," but, perhaps from the con- 
nection of the subject with the story of St. Peter, has been 

* See Stefano Infessura, Rev. Ital. Script, torn. iii. 
t Corio, ist mil. p. 876. 



596 WALKS IN ROME. 

thought worthy of being copied in mosaic in the bAsilica, 

whence this picture was brought. 
"This picture is terrible for dark and effective expression ; it is just 
one of those subjects in which the Caravaggio school delighted." — 
yamesott's Sacred Art. 

33. Martyrdom of St. Peter : Guido Reni. 

"This has the heavy powerful forms of Caravaggio, but wants the 
passionate feeling which sustains such subjects, — it is a martyrdom and 
nothing more, — it might pass for an enormous and horrible genre pic- 
ture." — Kugler. 

34. Martyrdom of St. Erasmus : N. Poussin. A most horrible 

picture of the disembowelment of the saint upon a wheel. 
It was copied in mosaic in vSt. Peter's when the picture was 
removed from thence. 

Left Wall : 

35. The Annunciation : Baroccio. From Sta. Maria at Loreto, 

detained in the Vatican in exchange for a mosaic, after it was 
sent back by the French. 

36. St. Gregory the Great — the miracle of the Brandeum : Andrea 

Sacchi. 
" The Empress Constantia sent to St. Gregory requesting some of 
the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul. He excused himself, saying that 
he dared not disturb their sacred remains for such a purpose, — but he 
sent her part of a consecrated cloth (Brandeum) which had enfolded 
the body of St. John the Evangelist. The empress rejected this gift 
with contempt : whereupon Gregory, to show that such things are 
hallowed not so much in themselves as by the faith of believers, laid 
the Brandeum on the altar, and after praying he took up a knife and 
pierced it, and blood flowed as from a living body." — Javiesoits Sacred 
Art, p. 321. 

37. The Ecstasy of Sta. Michelina: Baroccio. This picture is 

mentioned by Lanzi as " Sta. Michelina estatica sul Cat- 
vario." The story appears to be lost. 

Between the Windows : 

The Madonna and Child with St. Jerome and St. Bartholomew : 
Moretto da Brescia {Buonvicino). 

38. The Dream of Sta. Helena (of the finding of the true Cross) : 

Paolo Veronese. Once in the Capitol collection. 

Right Wall (returning) : 

39. Madonna with St. Thomas and St. Jerome : Guido. The St. 

Thomas is very grand. 

40. Madonna della Cintola with St. John and St. Augustin. 

Signed 1521 : Cesare da Sesto. 

41. Salvator Mundi. Christ seated on the rainbow: Correggio? 

42. St. Romualdo : Andrea Sacchi. The saint sees the vision of 

a ladder by which the friars of his Order ascend to heaven. 
The monks in white drapery are grand and noble figures. 

** It is recorded in the legend of St. Romualdo, that, a short time 



PONTE OUATTRO CAPI. 597 

before his death, he fell asleep beside a fountain near his cell ; and he 
dreamed, and in his dream he saw a ladder like that which the patriarch 
Jacob beheld in his vision, resting on the earth, and the top of it reach- 
ing to heaven ; and he saw the brethren of his Order ascending by twos 
and by threes, all clothed in white. When Romualdo awoke from his 
dream, he changed the habit of his monks from black to white, which 
they have ever since worn in remembrance of this vision." — Jameson s 
Monastic Orders, p. 1 1 7. 



A door on the ground-floor of the Cortile di S. Damaso 
will admit visitors (with an order) to visit the Papal Ma?iu- 
fadory of Mosaics, whence so many beautiful works have 
issued, and where others are always in progress. 

" Ghirlandajo, who felt the utmost enthusiasm for the august remains 
of Roman grandeur, was still more deeply impressed by the sight of the 
ancient mosaics of the Christian basilicas, the image of which was still 
present to his mind when he said, at a more advanced age, that 'mosaic 
was the true painting for eternity.' " — Rio. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE ISLAND AND THE TRASTEVERE. 

Ponte Quattro Capi — Gaetani Tower — S. Bartolomeo in Isola — 
Temple of ^sculapius — Hospital of the Benfratelli — Mills on the 
Tiber — Ponte Cestio — Fornarina's House — S. Benedetto a Piscin- 
uola — Castle of the Alberteschi — vS. Crispino — Palazzo Ponziani 
— Sta. Maria in Cappella — Sta. Cecilia — Hospital of S. Michele — 
Porta Portese — Sta. Maria del Orto — S. Francesco a Ripa — Castle 
of the Anquillara — S. Chrisogono — Hospital of S. Gallicano — Sta. 
Maria in Trastevere — S. Calisto — Convent of Sta. Anna — S. Cosi- 
mato — Porta Settimiana — Sta. Dorotea — Ponte Sisto. 

FOLLOWING the road which leads to the Temple of 
Vesta, &c., as far as the Via Savelli, and then turning 
down past the gateway of the Orsini palace, with its two 
bears, — we reach the Ponte Qtiattro Capi. 

This was the ancient Pons Fabricius, built of stone in 
the place of a wooden bridge, a.u.c. 733, by Fabricius, the 
Curator Viarum. It has two arches, with a small ornamental 
one in the central pier. In the twelfth century the greater 
part was faced with brickwork. An inscription, only partly 



598 WALJiTS IN ROME. 

legible, remains, l . fabricius . c . t . cur.viar . faciun- 

DUM . CURAVIT . EIDEMQ . PROBAVIT. Q . LEPIDUS . M . F . 

M . LOLLIUS . M . F . COS . EX . S . C . PROBAVERUNT. From 

this inscription the inference has been drawn that the senate 
always allowed forty years to elapse between the completion 
of a pubHc work, and the grant to it of their public approval. 
This bridge, according to Horace, was a favourite spot with 
those who wished to drown themselves ; hence Damasippus 
would have leaped into the Tiber, if it were not for the pre- 
cepts of the stoic Stertinius : 

*' Unde ego mira 
Descripsi docilis prsecepta hoec, tempore quo me 
Solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam, 
Atque a Fabricio non tristem ponte reverti." 

Horace, Sat. ii. 3, 

The name of the bridge changed with time to " Pons 
Tarpeius " and " Pons Judaeorum," from the neighbouring 
Ghetto. It is now called Ponte Quattro Capi, from two 
busts of the four-headed Janus, which adorn its parapet, 
and are supposed to have come from the temple of " Janus 
Geminus," which stood in this neighbourhood. 

On crossing this bridge, we are on the Island in the Tiber, 
the formation of which is ascribed by tradition to the produce 
of the corn-fields of the Tarquins (cast contemptuously upon 
the waters after their expulsion), which accumulated here, 
till soil gathered around them, and a solid piece of land was 
formed. Of this. Ampere says : 

" L'effet du couraiit rapide du fleuve est plutot de detruire les jles que 
d'en former. C'est ainsi qu'une petite ile a ete entrainee par la violence 
des eaux en 17 18." — Histoire Komaine a Rome. 

On this island, anciently known as the Isola Tiberinaj 
were three temples, — those, namely, of ^sculapius : 

*' Unde Coroniden circumflua Tibridis alveo 
Insula Romuleae sacris adsciverit urbis." 

Ovid, Metam. xv. 624. 

" Accepit Phoebo Nymphaque Coronide natum 
Insula, dividua quam premit amnis aqua." 

Ovid, Fast. i. 291. 
of Jupiter : 

"Jupiter in parte est, cepit locus unus utrumque : 
Junctaque sunt magno tempi a nepotis avo." 

Ovid, Fast. i. 293. 



THE ISOLA TIBERINA. 599 

and of Faunus : 

" Idibus agrestis fumant altaria Fauni, 
Hie ubi discretas insula rumpit aquas." 

Ovid^ Fast. ii. 193. 

Here also was an altar to the Sabine god Semo-Sancus, 
whose inscription, legible in the early centuries of Chris- 
tianity, led various ecclesiastical authors into the error that 
the words " Semoni Sanco " referred to Simon Magus.* 

In imperial times the island was used as a prison : among 
remarkable prisoners immured here was Arvandus, Prefect of 
Gaul, A.D. 468. In the reign of Claudius sick slaves were 
exposed and left to die here, — that emperor — by a strange 
contradiction in one who caused fallen gladiators to be 
butchered " for the pleasure of seeing them die " — making a 
law that any slave so exposed should receive his liberty if 
he recovered. In the middle ages the island was under 
the jurisdiction of the Cardinal Bishop of Porto, who lived 
in the Franciscan convent. Under Leo X. a f^te was 
held here in which Camillo Querno, the papal poet, was 
crowned with ivy, laurel, and cabbage (!). In 1656 the 
whole island was appropriated as a hospital for those stricken 
with the plague, — a singular coincidence for the site of the 
temple of ^sculapius. 

The first building on the left, after passing the bridge, is 
a fine brick tower, of great historic interest, as the only rehc 
of a castle, built by the family of the Anicii, of which St. 
Gregory the Great was a member, and two of whom were 
consuls together under Honorius : 

"Est in Romuleo procumbens insula Tibri, 
Qua medius geminas interfluit alveus urbes, 
Discretas subeunte freto, pariterque minantcs 
Ardua turrigerae surgunt in culmina ripre. 
Hie stetit et subitum pi'ospexit ab aggere votum. 
Unanimes fratres junetos stipante s.enatu 
Ire forum, strictasque procul radiare secures, 
Atque uno bijuges tolli de limine fasces." 

Claudius^ Faneg. in Frob. et Olyb. Cons. 226. 

From the Anicii the castle passed to the Gaetani. It was 
occupied as a fortress by the Countess Matilda, after she 
had driven the faction of the anti-pope Guibert out of the 
island, and was the refuge where two successive popes, 
Victor III. and Urban II., lived under her protection.! 

• Arapfire, i. 436. f See Hemans' Monuments in Rome. 



6oo WALKS IN ROME. 

The centre of the island is now occupied by the Church 
and Convent of S. Bartolojneo, which gives it its present name. 

The piazza in front of the church is occupied by a pillar, 
erected at the private expense of Pius IX., to commemorate 
the opening of the Vatican Council of 1869 — 70, — adorned 
with statues of St. Bartholomew, St. Paulinus of Nola, St. 
Francis, and S. Giovanni di Dio. Here formerly stood an 
ancient obelisk (the only one of unknown origin). A frag- 
ment of it was long preserved at the Villa Albani, whence it 
is said to have been removed to Urbino. The church, a 
basilica, was founded by Otho III. c. 1000; its campanile 
dates from 11 18. The nave and aisles are divided by red 
granite columns, said to be relics of the ancient temple, — as 
is a marble well-head under the stairs leading to the tribune. 
This was restored in 1798, and dedicated to St. Adalbert 
of Gnesen, who bestowed upon the church its great relic, 
the body of St. Bartholomew, which he asserted to have 
brought from Beneventum, though the inhabitants of that 
town profess that they still possess the real body of the 
apostle, and sent that of St. Paulinus of Nola to Rome in- 
stead. The dispute about the possession of this relic ran so 
high as to lead to a siege of Beneventum in the middle ages. 
The convent belongs to the Franciscans (Frati-Minori), who 
will admit male visitors into their pretty little garden at the 
end of the island, to see the remains of 

The Temple of yEscidapius^ built after the great plague in 
Rome, in B.C. 291, when, in accordance with the advice of 
the Sibylline books, ambassadors were sent to Epidaurus to 
bring ^sculapius to Rome ; — they returned with a statue of 
the god, but as their vessel sailed up the Tiber, a serpent, 
which had lain concealed during the voyage, glided from it, 
and landed on this spot, hailed by the people under the 
belief that ^sculapius himself had thus come to them. In 
consequence of this story the form of a ship was given to 
this end of the island, and its bow may still be seen at the 
end of the convent garden, with the famous serpent of 
^sculapius sculptured upon it in high relief* The curious 
remains still existing are not of sufficient size to bear out the 
assertion often made that the whole island was enclosed in 
the travertine form of a ship, of which the temple of Jupiter 

* Piranesi's engraving shows that a hundred years ago there existed, in addition, 
a colossal bust, and a hand holding the serpent-twined rod of ^sculapius. 



TEMPLE OF ^SCULAPIUS. 6oi 

at the other end afterwards formed the prow, and the obelisk 
the mast 

*' Perdant les guerres Samnites, Rome fut de nouveau frappee par 
une de ces maladies auxquelles elle etait souvent en proie ; celle-ci dura 
trois annees. On eut recours aux livres Sibyllins. En cas pareil ils 
avaient present de consacrer un temple a Apollon ; cette fcis ils pre- 
scrivirent d'aller a Epidaure chercher le fils d' Apollon, Esculape, et de 
I'amener a Rome. Esculape, sous la forme d'un serpent, fut transporte 
d' Epidaure dans I'ile Tiberine, ou on lui eleva un temple, et ou ont ete 
trouves des ex-voto, representant des bras, des jambes, diverses autres 
parties du corps humain, ex-votos qu'on eut pu croire provenir d'une 
eglise de Rome, car le catholicisme i-omain a adopte cet usage paien sans 
y rien changer. 

" Pourquoi place-t-on le temple d' Esculape en cet endroit ? On a vu 
que rile Tiberine avait ete tres-anciennement consacree au culte d'mi 
dieu des Latins primitifs, Faunus ; or ce dieu vendait ses oracles pres 
des sources thermales ; its devaient avoir souvant pourl'objet la guerison 
des malades qui venaient demander la sante a ces sources. De plus, les 
malades consultaient Esculape dans les songes par incubation, comme 
dans rOvide, Numa va consulter Faunus sur I'Aventin. II n'est done 
pas surpreuant qu'on ait institue le culte du dieu grec de la sante, la ou 
le dieu latin Faunus rendait ses oracles pans des songes, et ou etaient 
probablement des sources d'eau chaude qui ont disparu comme les 
lautulce pres du Forum romain. 

" On donna a Tile la forme d'un vaisseau, plus tard un obelisque figura 
le mat ; en la regardant du Ponte Rotto, on reconnait encore tres bien 
cette forme, de ce cote, on voit sculpte sur le mur qui figure le vaisseau 
d' Esculape une image du dieu avec un serpent entortille autour de son 
sceptre. La belle statue d'Esculape, venue des jardins Farnese, passe 
pour avoir ete oelle de I'ile Tiberine. Un temple de Jupiter touchait a 
ce temple d'Esculape. 

" Un jour que je visitais ce lieu, le sacristain de Teglise de St. Barth^- 
lemy me dit, * Al tempo d' Escitlapio quando Giooje regnava.' Phrase 
singuliere, et qui montre encore vivante une sorte de foi au paganisme 
chez les Romains." — Ampere, iii. 42. 

Opposite S. Bartolomeo, on the site of the temple of 
Faunus, is the Hospital of S. Giovanni Caiabita, also called 
Ben/ratelli, entirely under the care of the brethren of S. Gio- 
vanni di Dio, who cook, nurse, wash, and otherwise do all 
the work of those who pass under their care, often to the 
number of 1200 in the course of the year, though the hos- 
pital is very small. 

** C'est a Pie V. que les freres de I'ordre de la Charite, institue par saint 
Jean de Dieu, durent leur premier etablissement a Rome. 

" Au milieu du cortege triomphal qui accompagnait don Juan 
d'Autriche (1571), lors de son retour de Lepante, on remarquait un 
pauvre homme miserablement vetu et a I'attitude modeste. II se 
nonimait Sebastien Arias des frh-es de Jean de Dieu. Jean de Dieu etait 
mort .sans laisser d'autre regie a ses disciples que ces touchantes paroles 



6o2 WALKS I.V ROME. 

qu'il repetait ?,z.n% ctssQ, /aites le bie/i, vies frires ; et ^ebastien d'Arids 
venait a Rome pour demander au pape rautorisation de former des 
couvents et d'avoir des hospices ou ils pussent suivre les exemples de 
devouement que leur avait laisses Jean de Dieu. Or, Sebastien ren con- 
tra don Juan a Naples, et le vainqueur de Lepante le prit avec lui. 11 
se chargea meme d'appuyer sa requete, et Pie V. s'empressa d'accorder 
aux freres non-seulement la bulle qu'ils desiraient, mais encore un 
monastere dans File du Tibre." — Gournerie, Rome Chretienne, ii. 206. 

A narrow lane near this leads to the other end of the 
island, where the temple of Jupiter stood. It is worth while 
to go thither for the sake of the view of the river and its 
bridges, which is to be obtained from a little quay leading to 
one of the numerous water-mills which exist near this. 
These floating Mills (which bear sacred monograms upon 
their gables) are interesting as having been invented by 
Belisarius in order to supply the people and garrison with 
bread, during the siege of Rome by Vitiges, when the Goths 
had cut the aqueducts, and thus rendered the mills on the 
Janiculan useless. 

The bridge, of one large and two smaller arches, which 
connects the island \vith the Trastevere, is now called the 
Fonte S. Bai'tolonieo, but was anciently the Pons Cestius, 
or Gratianus, built a.u.c. 708, by the Praetor Lucius 
Cestius, who was probably father to the Caius Cestius 
buried near the Porta S. Paolo. It was restored a.d. 370 
by the emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, as is seen 
from the fragments of a red letter inscription on the inside 
of the parapet, in which the title " Pontifex Maximus " is 
ascribed to each — " a title accepted without hesitation," 
says Gibbon, " by seven Christian emperors, who were in- 
vested with more absolute authority over the religion they 
had deserted, than over that which they professed." 

We now enter the Trastei'ere, the city " across the Tiber," 
— the portion of Rome which is most unaltered from me- 
diaeval times, and whose narrow streets are still overlooked 
by many ancient towers, gothic windows, and curious frag- 
ments of sculpture. The inhabitants on this side differ in 
many respects from those on the other side of the Tiber. 
They pride themselves upon being born " Trasteverini," 
profess to be the direct descendants of the ancient Romans, 
seldom intermarry with their neighbours, and speak a dialect 
peculiarly their own. It is said that in their dispositions also 
they differ from the other Romans, that they are a far more 



S. BENEDETTO A PISCINUOLd. 603 

hasty, passionate, and revengeful, as they are a stronger 
and more vigorous race. The proportion of murders (a 
crime far less common in Rome than in England) is larger 
in this than in any other part of the city. This, it is 
believed, is partly due to the extreme excitement which the 
Trasteverini display in the pursuit of their national games, 
especially that of Morrk : — 

" Morra is played by the men, and merely consists in holding up, in 
rapid succession, any number of fingers they please, calling out at the 
same time the number their antagonist shows. Nothing, seemingly, 
can be more simple or less interesting. Yet, to see them play, so 
violent are their gestures, that you would imagine . them possessed by 
some diabolical passion. The eagerness and rapidity with which they 
carry it on render it very liable to mistake and altercation ; then frenzy 
fires them, and too often furious disputes arise at this trivial play that 
end in murder. Morra seems to differ in no respect from the Micare 
Digitis of the ancient Romans." — EatotC s Rome. 

A house with gothic windows on the right, soon after 
passing the bridge, is pointed out as that once inhabited by 
the Fornarma, beloved of Raphael, and so well known to us 
from his portrait of her in the Tribune at Florence. 

Crossing the Via Longarina, we find ourselves in the 
little piazza of S. Benedetto a Piscmuola, where there is a 
tiny church, with a good brick campanile intersected by 
terra-cotta mouldings, which occupies the site of the house 
inhabited by St. Benedict before his retreat to Subiaco. 
The exterior is uninviting, but the interior very curious ; 
an atrium with antique columns opens to a vaulted chapel 
(of the same design as the Orto del Paradiso at Sta. 
Prassede), in which is a picture of the Virgin and Child, 
revered as that before which St. Benedict was wont to pray. 
Hence is entered the cell of the saint, of rough-hewn 
stones. His stone pillow is shown. 

The church has ancient pillars, and a rich opus-alexan- 
drinum pavement. 

" Over the high altar is a picture — full-length — of St. Benedict, which 
Mabillon (' Iter Italicum ') considers a genuine contemporary portrait — 
though Nibby and other critics suppose it less ancient. The figure on 
gold background is seated in a chair with gothic carvings, such as were 
in mediaeval use ; the black cowl is drawn over the head, the hair and 
beard are white ; the aspect is serious and thoughtful, in one hand a 
crozier, in the other the book of rules drawn up by the Saint, dis- 
playing the words with which they begin : ' Ausculta fili precepta 
jnagistri," - Hemans Ancient Sacred Art. 

2 R 



6o4 WALKS IN ROME. 

Turning down the Via Longarina towards the river, we 
pass, on the left, considerable remains of the old mediaeval 
Castle of the Alberteschi Family^ consisting of a block of 
palatial buildings of handsome masonry, with numerous 
antique fragments built into them, and a very rich porch 
sculptured with egg and billet mouldings of <:. a.d. 1150, 
and beyond these, separated from them by a modem street, 
a high brick tower of c. a.d. i 100. Above one of the windows 
of this tower, a head of Jupiter is engrafted in the wall. 

We now reach the entrance of the Ponte Rotto (de- 
scribed Chap. v.). Close to this bridge is the Church of 
S. Crispino al Ponte (the saint is buried at S. Lorenzo Pane 
e Perna). The front is modernized, but the east end 
displays rich terra-cotta cornices, and is very picturesque. 
On the river bank below this are the colossal Hons' heads 
mentioned in Chap. V. 

Turning up the Via dei Vascellari, we pass on the right, 
the ancient Palace of the Ponziani Family, once magnificent, 
but now of humble and rude exterior, and scarcely to be 
distinguished, except in March, during the festa of Sta. Fran- 
cesca Romana, when old tapestries are hung out upon its 
white-washed walls, and the street in front is thickly strewn 
with box-leaves. 

*' The modern building that has been raised on the foundation of the 
old palace is the Casa dei Esercizii Pii, for the young men of the city. 
There the repentant sinner who longs to break the chain of sin, the 
youth beset by some strong temptation, one who has heard the inward 
voice summoning him to higher paths of virtue, another who is in doubt 
as to the particular line of life to which he is called, may come, and 
leave behind him for three, or five, or ten days, as it may be, the busy 
world, with all its distractions and its agitations, and, free for the time 
being from temporal cares, the wants of the body being provided for, 
and the mind at rest, may commune with God and their own souls. 

*• Over the Casa dei Esercizii Pii the sweet spirit of Francesca seems 
still to preside. On the day of her festival its rooms are thrown open, 
every memorial of the gentle saint is exhibited, lights burn on numerous 
altars, flowers deck the passages, leaves are strewn in the chapel, on the 
stairs, in the entrance-court ; gay carpets, figured tapestry, and crimson 
silks hang over the door, and crowds of people go in and out, and kneel 
before the relics or the pictures of the dear saint of Rome. It is a 
touching festival, which carries back the mind to the day when the 
young bride of Lorenzo Ponziano entered these walls for the first time, 
in all the sacred beauty of holiness and youth." — Lady G. L'ltllei'tott. 

In this house, also, Sta. Francesca Romana died, having 
come hither from her convent to nurse her son who was 



STA. CECILM. 605 

ill, and having been then seized with mortal illness her- 
self. 

*' Touching were the last words of the dying mother to her spiritual 
children : 'Love, love,' was the burden of her teaching, as it had been 
that of the beloved disciple. 'Love one another,' she said, 'and be 
faithful unto death. Satan will assault you, as he has assaulted me, 
but be not afraid. You will overcome him through patience and obedi- 
ence ; and no trial will be too grievous, if you are united to Jesus ; if 
you walk in His ways. He will be with you.' On the seventh day of 
her illness, as she had herself announced, her life came to a close. A 
sublime expression animated her face, a more ethereal beauty clothed 
her earthly form. Her confessor for the last time inquired what it was 
her enraptured eyes beheld, and she answered, ' The heavens open ! the 
angels descend ! the angel has finished his task. He stands before me. 
He beckons me to follow him.' These were the last words Francesca 
uttered." — Lady G. Fullertoi'C s Life of Sta. F. Romana. 

Almost opposite the Ponziani Palace, an alley leads to 
the small chapel of Sta, Maria in Cappella, which has a good 
brick campanile, dating from 1090. This building is 
attached to a hospital for poor women ill of incurable 
liiseases, attended by sisters of charity, and entirely under 
the patronage of the Doria family. 

We now reach the front of the Convent afid Church of Sta. 
Cecilia (facing which is a picturesque mediaeval house), in 
many ways one of the most interesting buildings in the 
city. 

Cecilia was a noble and rich Roman lady, who lived in 
the reign of Alexander Severus. She was married at six- 
teen to Valerian, a heathen, with whom she lived in per- 
petual virginity, telling him that her guardian angel watched 
over her by day and night. 

" I have an angel which thus loveth me — 
That with great love, whether I wake or sleep, 
Is ready aye my body for to keep." 

Chaucer. 

At length Valerian and his brother Tiburtius were con- 
verted to Christianity by her prayers, and the exhortations 
of Pope Urban I. The husband and brother were be- 
headed for refusing to sacrifice to idols, and Cecilia was 
shortly afterwards condemned by Almachius, prefect of 
Rome, who was covetous of the great wealth she had inhe- 
rited by their deaths. She was first shut up in the Suda- 
torium of her own baths, and a blazing fire was lighted, 
that she might be destroyed by the hot vapours. But 



6o6 WALKS IN ROME. 

when the bath Avas opened, she was found still living, " for 
God," says the legend, " had sent a cooling shower, which 
had tempered the heat of the fire, and preserved the life of 
the saint." Almachius, then, who dreaded the consequences 
of bringing so noble and courageous a victim to public 
execution, sent a hctor to behead her in her own palace, 
but he executed his office so ill, that she still lived after 
the third blow of his axe, after which the Roman law for- 
bade that a victim should be stricken again. " The Chris- 
tians found her bathed in her blood, and during three days 
she still preached and taught, like a doctor of the Church, 
with such sweetness and eloquence, that four hundred 
pagans were converted. On the third day she was visited 
by Pope Urban, to whose care she tenderly committed the 
poor whom she nourished, and to him she bequeathed the 
palace in which she had lived, that it might be consecrated 
as a temple to the Saviour. Then, " thanking God that he 
considered her, a humble woman, worthy to share the glory 
of his heroes, and with her eyes apparently fixed upon the 
heavens opening before her, she departed to her heavenly 
bridegroom, upon the 22nd November, a.d. 280." 

The foundation of the church dates from its consecration 
by Pope Urban I., after the death of St. Ceciha, but it was 
rebuilt by Paschal I. in 821, and miserably modernized by 
Cardinal Doria in 1725. The exterior retains its ancient 
campanile of 11 20, and its atrium of marble pillars, evi- 
dently collected from pagan edifices and surmounted by a 
frieze of mosaic, in which medallion heads of Cecilia, Vale- 
rian, Tiburtius, Urban I., and others are introduced. In 
the courtyard of the convent, which belongs to Benedictine 
nuns, is a fine specimen of the Roman vase called Can- 
tharus, perhaps coeval with St. Ceciha's own residence 
here. 

Right of the door, on entering, is the tomb of Adam of 
Hertford, Bishop of London, who died 1398, the only one 
spared from a cruel death, of the cardinals who conspired 
against Urban VI., and were taken prisoners at Lucera — from 
fear of King John who was his friend. His sarcophagus is 
adorned with the arms of England, then three leopards and 
fleurs de-lis quartered. On the opposite side of the entrance 
is the tomb of Cardinal Fortiguerra, conspicuous in the 
contests of Pius II. and Paul II. with the Malatestas and 



STA. CECILIA. 607 

Savellis in the fifteenth century. The drapery is a beau- 
tiful specimen )f the dehcate carving of detail during that 
period. 

The altar canopy, which bears the name of its artist, Arnol- 
phus, and the date 1286, is a fine specimen of gothic work, 
and has statuettes of Cecilia, Valerian, Tiburtius, and 
Urban. Beneath the altar is the famous statue of St. 
Cecilia. 

In the archives of the Vatican remains an account 
written by Pope Paschal I. (a.d. 817 — 24) himself, describing 
how, " yielding to the infirmity of the flesh," he fell asleep 
in his chair during the early morning service at St. Peter's, 
with his mind pre-occupied with a longing to find the 
burial-place of Cecilia, and discover her relics. Then in a 
glorified vision the virgin-saint appeared before him, and 
revealed the spot where she lay, with her husband and 
brother-in-law, in the catacomb of Calixtus, and there they 
were found, and transported to her church on the following 
day. 

In the sixteenth century, Sfondrato, titular cardinal of 
the church, opened the tomb of the martyr, when the em- 
balmed body of Cecilia was found, as it had been previously 
found by Paschal, robed in gold tissue, with linen clothes 
steeped in blood at her feet, " not lying upon the back, like 
a body in a tomb, but upon its right side, like a virgin in 
her bed, with her knees modestly drawn together, and 
offering the appearance of sleep." Pope Clement VIII. 
and all the people of Rome rushed to look upon the saint, 
who was afterwards enclosed as she was found, in a shrine 
of cypress wood cased in silver. But before she was again 
hidden from sight, the greatest artist of the day, Stefano 
Maderno, was called in by Sfondrato, to sculpture the 
marble portrait which we now see lying upon her gi-ave. 
Sfondrato (whose tomb is in this church) also enriched her 
shrine with the ninety-six silver lamps which burn con- 
standy before it. In regarding this statue it will be remem- 
bered that Cecilia was not beheaded, but wounded in the 
throat, — a gold circlet conceals the wound. 

In the Gtatue " the body lies on its side, the limbs a little drawn up ; 
the hands are delicate and tine, — they are not locked, but crossed at the 
wrists: the arms are stretched out. The drapery is beautihdly mo- 
delled, and modestly covers the limbs. . . . '. It is the statue of 



6o8 WALKS IN ROME. 

a lady, perfect in form, and affecting from the resemblance to reality in 
the drapery of white marble, and the unspotted appearance of the statue 
altogether. It lies as no living body could lie, and yet correctly, as the 
dead when left to expire, — I mean in the gravitation of the limbs," — Sir 
a Bell. 

The inscription says : ."Behold the body of the most holy virgin 
Cecilia, whom I myself saw lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have in 
this marble expressed for thee the same saint in the very same posture 
of body." 

The tribune is adorned with mosaics of the ninth cen- 
tury, erected in the lifetime of Paschal I. (see his square 
nimbus). The Saviour is seen in the act of benediction, 
robed in gold : at his side are SS. Peter and Paul, St. Cecilia 
and St. Valerian, St. Paschal I. carrying the model of his 
church, and St. Agatha, whom he joined with Cecilia in its 
dedication. The mystic palm-trees and the phoenix, the 
emblem of eternity, are also represented, and, beneath, the 
four rivers, and the twelve sheep, emblematical of the apos- 
tles, issuing from the gates of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, 
to the adoration of the spotless Lamb. The picture of St. 
Cecilia behind the altar is attributed to Guido. 

At the end of the right aisle is an ancient fresco repre- 
senting the dream of Pope Paschal, — the (mitred) pope 
asleep upon his throne, and the saint appearing before him 
in a rich robe adorned with gems. This is the last of a 
series of frescoes which once existed in the portico of the 
church. The rest were destroyed in the seventeenth century. 
There are copies of them in the Barberini Library, viz. : 

1. The marriage feast of Valerian and Cecilia. 

2. Cecilia persuades Valerian to seek for St. Urban. 

3. Valerian rides forth to seek for Urban. 

4. Valerian i« baptized. 

5. An Angel crowns Cecilia and Valerian. 

6. Cecilia converts her executioners. 

7. Cecilia suffers in the bath. 

8. The Martyrdom of Cecilia. 

9. Tlie Burial of Cecilia. 
10. The dream of Paschal. 

Opening out of the same aisle are two chambers in the 
house of St. Cecilia, one the sudatorium of her baths, in 
which she was immured, actually retaining the pipes and 
calorifers of an ancient Roman bath. 

The Festa of St. Cecilia is observed in this church on 
November 22nd, when — 



STA. CECILIA. 609 

— "rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted queen of harmony" — * 
is honoured in beautiful music from the papal choir as- 
sembled here. Visitors to Bologna will recollect the glori- 
ous figure of St. Cecilia by Raphael, rapt in ecstasy, and 
surrounded by instruments of music. This association with 
Cecilia probably arises from the tradition of the church, 
which tells how Valerian, returning from baptism by Pope 
Urban, found her singing hymns of triumph for his conver- 
sion, of which he had supposed her to be ignorant, and that 
when the bath was opened after her three days' imprison- 
ment, she was again found singing the praises of her 
Saviour. 

It is said that " she sang with such ravishing sweetness, 
that even the angels descended from heaven to listen to 
her, or to join their voices with hers." 

The antiphons sung upon her festival are : 

" And Cecilia, thy servant, serves thee, O Lord, even as the bee that 
is never idle. 

"I bless thee, O Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, for through thy 
Son the fire hath been quenched round about me. 

** I asked of the Lord a respite of three days, that I might consecrate 
my house as a church. 

'*0 Valerian, I have a secret to tell thee ; I have for my lover an 
angel of God, who, with great jealousy, watches over my body. 

" The glorious virgin ever bore the Gospel of Christ in her bosom, and 
neither by day nor night ceased from conversing with God in prayer." 

And the anthem : 

. "While the instruments of music were playing, Cecilia sang unto the 
Lord, and said, Let my heart be undefiled, that I may never be con- 
founded. 

"And Valerianus found Cecilia praying in her chamber with an 
angel." 

It will be remembered that Cecilia is one of the chosen 
saints daily commemorated in the canon of the mass. 

"Nobis quoque peccatoribus famulis tuis, de multitudine misera- 
tionum tuarum sperantibus, partem aliquam et societatem donare digneris 
cum tuis Sanctis Apostolis et Martyribus : cum Joanne, Stephano, 
Matthia, Barnaba, Ignatio, Alexandro, Marcellino, Petro, Felicitate, 
Perpetua, Agata, Lucia, Agnete, Ccecilia, Anastasia, et omnibus 
Sanctis." 

Just beyond St. Cecilia is the immense Hospital of S. 
Michele., founded by Cardinal Odescalchi, nephew of Inno- 
cent XL, in 1693, as a refuge for vagabond children, where 

* Wordsworth. 



6io WALKS IN ROME. 

they might be properly brought up and taught a trade. 
Innocent XII. (Pignatelli) added to this foundation a hos- 
pital for sick persons of both sexes, and each succeeding 
pope has increased the buildings and their endowment. 
The establishment is now divided into an asylum for old 
men and women, a school with ateliers for boys and girls, 
and a penitentiary (" Casa delle Donne cattive "). A large 
church was attached to the hospital by Leo XII. No old 
men are admitted who have not inhabited Rome for five 
years ; if they are still able to work a small daily task is 
given to them. The old women, as long as they can work, 
are obliged to mend and wash the linen of the establish- 
ment. The boys, for the most part orphans, are received 
at the age of eleven. The girls receive a dowry of 300 
francs if they marry, but double that sum if they consent 
to enter a convent. A printing press is attached to the 
hospital. 

S. Michele occupies the site of the sacred grove of the 
goddess Furina (not of the Furies), where Caius Gracchus 
was killed, B.C. 123. Protected by his friends, he escaped 
from the Aventine, where he had first taken refuge, and 
crossed the Pons Sublicius. A single slave reached the 
grove of Furina with him, who having in vain sought for a 
horse to continue their flight, first slew his master and 
then himself. One Septimuleius then cut off the head of 
Gracchus, and — a proclamation having been issued that any 
one who brought the head of Caius Gracchus should receive 
its weight in gold — first filled it with lead, and then carried 
it on a spear to the consul Opimius, who paid him his 
blood-money. 

At the end of this street is the Poi'ta Portese^ built by 
Urban VIII., through which nms the road to Porto and 
Fiumicino. 

Outside this gate was the site of the camp of Tarquin, — 
afterwards given by the senate to Mutius-Scsevola, for 
his bravery in the camp of Lars Porsenna. The vine- 
yards here have an interest to Roman Catholics as the 
scene of one of the miracles attributed to Sta. Francesca 
Romana. 

*' One fine sunny January day, Francesca and her companions had 
worked since dawn in the vineyards of the Porta Portcse. They had 
worked hard for several hours, and then suddenly remembered that they 



• S. FRANCESCO A RIP A. 6ii 

had brought no provisions with them. They soon became faint and 
hungry, and, above all, very thirsty. Perna, the youngest of all the 
oblates, was particularly heated and tired, and asked permission of the 
Mother Superior to go to drink water at a fountain some way off on the 
public road. 

" 'Be patient, my child,' Francesca answered, and they went on with 
their work ; but Francesca withdrawing aside, knelt down, and said, 
* Lord Jesus, I have been thoughtless in forgetting to provide food for 
my sisters, — help us in our need.' 

"Perna, who had kept near the Mother Superior, said to herself, 
with some impatience, ' It would be more to the purpose to take us 
home at once.' Then Francesca, turning to her, said, ' My child, you 
do not trust in God ; look up and see.' And Perna saw a vine entwined 
around a tree, whose dead and leafless branches were loaded with grapes. 
In speechless astonishment the oblates assembled around the tree, for 
they had all seen its bare and withered branches. Twenty times at least 
they had passed before it, and the season for grapes was gone by. 
There were exactly as many bunches as persons present.' — See Lady G. 
Fullerto7i s Life of Sta. F. Romana. 

From the back of S. Michele a cross street leads to the 
Church of Sta. Maria deir Orto, designed by GiuHo Ro- 
mano, c. 1530, except the facade, which is by Martino 
Lunghi. The high altar is by Giacomo della Porta. The 
church contains an Annunciation by Taddeo Zucchero. 

** Cette eglise appartient aplusieurs corporations; chacune a sa tombe 
devant sa propre chapelle, et sur le couvercle sont gravees ses amies par- 
ticulieres ; un coq sur la tombe des marchands de volaille, une pan- 
touffle sur celle des savetiers, des artichauts sur celle des jardiniers, &c." 
—Robello. 

Close to this, at the end of the street which runs parallel 
with S. Michele, is the Church of S. Francesco a Ripa^ the 
noviciate of the Franciscans — " Frati Minori." The convent 
contains the room (approached through the church) in which 
St. Francis lived, during his visits at Rome, with many 
relics of him. His stone pillow and his crucifix are shown, 
and a picture of him by G. de' Lettesoli. An altar in his 
chamber supports a reliquary in which 18,000 relics are 
displayed ! 

The church was rebuilt soon after the death of St. 
Francis by the knight Pandolfo d' Anquillara (his castle is in 
the Via Lungaretta), whose tomb is in the church, with his 
figure, in the dress of a Franciscan monk, which he assumed 
in the latter part of his life. It was again rebuilt by 
Cardinal Pallavicini, from designs of Matteo Rossi. Among 
its pictures are the Virgin and St. Anne by Baciccio^ the 



6i2 WALKS IN ROME. 

Nativity by Simon Vouet, and a dead Christ by AnnibaU 
Caracci. On the left of the altar is the Altieri chapel, in 
which is a recumbent statue of the blessed Luigi Albeitoni, 
by Bet'umi. In the third chapel on the right is a mummy, 
said to be that of the virgin martyr Sta. Semplicia. The 
convent garden has some beautiful palm-trees. 

Following the Via Morticelli we regain the Via Lunga- 
retta near S. Benedetto. This street, more than any other 
in Rome, retains remnants of mediaeval architecture. On 
the right (opposite the opening to the west end of S. Chri- 
sogono) is the entrance to the old Castle of the Anquil- 
lara Fa/Jiily, of whom were Count Pandolfo d' Anquillara 
already mentioned, and Everso, his grandson, celebrated 
for his highway robberies between Rome and Viterbo in 
the fifteenth century ; also Orso d' Anquillara, senator of 
Rome, who crowned Petrarch at the Capitol on Easter 
Day, 1341. "The family device, two crossed eels, sur- 
mounted by a helmet, and a wild boar holding a serpent in 
his mouth, is believed to refer to the story of the founder of 
their house, Malagrotta, a second St. George, who slew a 
terrible serpent, which had devastated the district round his 
abode, and received in recompense from the pope the gift 
of as much land as he could w^alk round in one day."* 

The existing remains consist of an arch, called " L' Arco 
dell' Annunziata," and a brick tower, which is now in the 
possession of a Signor Forti, who exhibits here, during 
Epiphany, a remarkably pretty Presepio, in which the Holy 
Family and the Shepherds are seen backed by the real 
landscape. For those who witness this sight it will be inter- 
esting to turn to the origin of a Presepio. 

"St. Francis asked [of Pope Honorius III. 1223], with his usual 
simplicity, to be allowed to celebrate Christmas with certain unusual 
ceremonies which had suggested themselves to him — ceremonies which 
lie must have thought likely to seize upon the popular imagination and 
impress the unlearned folk. He would not do it on his own authority, 
we are told, lest he should be accused of levity. When he made this 
petition, he was bound for the village of Grecia, a little place not far 
from Assisi, where he was to remain during that sacred season. In this 
village, when the eve of the nativity approached, Francis instructed a cer- 
tain grave and worthy man, called Giovanni, to prepare an ox and an 
ass, along with a manger and all the common fittings of a stable, for his 
use, in the church. When the solemn night arrived, Francis and his 
brethren arranged all these things into a visible representation of the oc- 

* Henians* Monuments in Rome. 



S. CHRISOGONO. 613 

currences of the night at Bethlehem. The manger was filled with hay, 
the animals were led into their places ; the scene was prepared as we 
see it now through all the churches of Southern Italy — a reproduction, 
so far as the people know how, in startling realistic detail of the sur- 
roundings of the first Christmas We are told that Francis 

stood by this, his simple theatrical (for such, indeed, it Avas — no shame 
to him) representation, all the night long, sighing for joy, and filled with 
an unspeakable sweetness." — Mrs. Oliphaiit, St. Francis. 

On the left, is the fine Church of S. Chrisogono, founded by 
Pope Sylvester, but rebuilt in 731, and again by Cardinal 
Scipio Borghese (who modernized so many of the old 
churches), in 1623. The tower is mediaeval (rebuilt?), but 
spoilt by w^hitewash ; the portico has four ancient granite 
columns. The interior is a basilica, the nave being separ- 
ated from the aisles by twenty-two granite columns, and 
the tribune from the nave by two magnificent columns of 
porphyry. The baldacchino, of graceful proportions, rests 
on pillars of yellow alabaster. Over the tabernacle is a 
picture of the Virgin and Child by the Cav. d'Arpino. The 
mosaic in the tribune, probably only the fragment of a 
larger design, represents the Madonna and Child enthroned, 
between St. James the Great and St. Chrisogonus. The 
stalls are good specimens of modern wood-carving. Near 
the end of the right aisle is the modern tomb of Anna 
Maria Taigi, lately beatified and likely to be canonized,, 
though readers of her life will find it difficult to imagine 
why,— -the great point of her character being that she was 
a good wife to her husband, though he was "ruvido di 
maniere, e grossolano." Stephen Langton, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, was titular cardinal of this church. 

S. Chrisogono, represented in the mosaic as a yonng 
knight, stood by Sta. Anastasia during her martyrdom, ex- 
horting her to patient endurance. He was afterwards him- 
self beheaded under Diocletian, and his body thrown into 
the sea. 

In 1866 an Excubitoriiim of theviith cohort of Vigiles 
(a station of Roman firemen) was 'discovered near this 
church. Several chambers were tolerably perfect. 

On the left, we pass the Hospital of S. Gallicano, founded 
by Benedict XIII. (Orsini), in 1725, as is told by the inscrip- 
tion over the entrance, for the " neglectis rejectisque ab 
omnibus." The interior contains two long halls opening 
into one another, the first containing: 120 beds for men. 



6 14 WALKS IN ROME. 

the second 88 for women. Patients affected with maladies 
of the skin are received here to the number of loo. The 
principal treatment is by means of baths, which gives the 
negative, within these walls, to the Italian saying that " an 
ancient Roman took as many baths in a week as a modern 
Roman in all his life/' The establishment is at present 
under the management of the Benfratelli (" Fate bene 
fratelli "). S. Gallicano, to whom the hospital is dedicated, 
was a Benfratello of the time of Constantine, who devoted 
his time and his fortune to the poor. 

At the upper end of the Via Lungaretta is a piazza with a 
very handsome fountain, on one side of which is the Church 
of Sta. Maria in T?'astevere, supposed to be the first church 
in Rome dedicated to the Virgin. It was founded by St. 
Calixtus in a.d. 224, on the site of the Taberna-Meritoria, 
an asylum for old soldiers ; where, according to Don Cas- 
sius, a fountain of pure oil sprang up at the time of our 
Saviour's birth, and flowed away in one day to the Tiber, a 
story which gave the name of '' Fons Olei " to the church in 
early times. It is said that wine-sellers and tavern-keepers 
(popinarii) disputed with the early Christian inhabitants for 
this site, upon which the latter had raised some kind of 
humble oratory, and that they carried their complaint before 
Alexander Severus, when the emperor awarded the site to 
the Christians, saying, " I prefer that it should belong to 
those who honour God, whatever be their form of worship." 

" Ce souvenir augmente encore I'interet qui s'altache a I'eglise de 
Santa Maria in Trastevere. Les colonnes antiques de granit egyptien 
de cette basilique et les belles mosaiques qui la decorent me touchent 
moins que la tradition d'apres laquelle elle fut elevee la oil de pauvres 
Chretiens se rassemblaient dans un cabaret purifie par leur piete, pour y 
celebrer le culte qui devait un jour etaler ses magnificences sous le dome 
resplendissant de Saint-Pierre." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 318. 

The church was rebuilt in 340 by Julius I., and after a 
series of alterations was again almost entirely reconstructed 
in 1 139 by Innocent ll., as a thanksgiving offering for the 
submission of the anti-pope. Eugenius III. (1145 — 50) 
finished what was left uncompleted, but the new basilica 
was not consecrated till the time of Innocent III. (1198 — 
1 2 16). The tower, apse, tribune, and mosaics belong to 
the early restoration ; the rest is due to alterations made liy 
Bernardino Rossellini for Nicholas V. 



ST A. MARIA IN TRASTEVERE. 6i5 

The west facade is covered A\ith mosaics ; the upper part 
— representing the Saviour throned between angels — and the 
lower — of pahns, the twelve sheep, and the mystic cities — are 
additions by Pius IX. in 1869. The central frieze was 
begun in the twelfth century under Eugenius III., and com- 
pleted in the fourteenth by Pietro Cavallini. It represents 
the Virgin and Child enthroned in the midst, and ten female 
figures, generally described as the Ten Virgins, — but Hemans 
remarks : 

"It is evident that such subject cannot have been in the artist's 
thoughts, as each stately figure advances towards the throne with the 
same devout aspect and graceful serenity, the same faith and confidence ; 
the sole observable distinctions being that the two with unlit lamps are 
somewhat more matronly, their costumes simpler, than is the case with 
the rest ; and that instead of being crowned, as are the others, these 
two wear veils. Explanation of such attributes may be found in the 
mystic meaning — the light being appropriate to virgin saints, the oil 
taken to signify benevolence or almsgiving ; and we may conclude that 
those without light represent wives or widows, the others virgin saints, 
in this group. Two other diminutive figures (the scale indicating 
humility), who kneel at the feet of Mary, are Innocent II. and Eugenius 
III., both vested in the pontifical mantle, but bareheaded. Originally 
the Mother and Child alone had the nimbus around the head, as we see 
in a water-colour drawing from this original (now in the Barberini 
Library) dated 1640, made befoi-e 2i renovation by which that halo has 
been given alike to all the female figures. Another much faded mosaic, 
the Madonna and Child, under an arched canopy, high up on the cam- 
panile, may perhaps be as ancient as those on the fafade." — Medieval 
Christian Art. 

The portico contains two frescoes of the Annunciation, 
one of them ascribed to Cavallini. Its walls are occupied 
by early Christian and pagan inscriptions. One, of the time 
of Trajan, is regarded with peculiar interest : " marcus 

COCCEUS LIB . AUG . AMBROSIUS PROPOSITUS, VESTIS ALBO, 
TRIUMPHALIS, FECIT, NICE CONJUGI SVM CUM QUA VIXIT 
ANNOS XXXXV., DIEBUS XI., SINE ULLA QUERELA." The 

interior is that of a basilica. The nave, paved with opus- 
alexandrinum, is divided from the aisles by twenty-two 
ancient granite columns, whose Ionic capitals are in several 
instances decorated with heads of pagan gods. They 
support a richly-decorated architrave. The roof, in the 
centre of which is a picture of the Assumption of the 
Virgin, is painted by Domenichino. On the right of the 
entrance is a ciborium by Mino da Fiesole. The high altar 
covers a confessional, beneath which are the remains of five 



6i6 IVALKS IiV ROME. 

early popes, removed from the catacombs. Among the 
tombs are those of the painters, Lanfranco, and Giro Ferri, 
and of Bastari, hbrarian of the Vatican, editor of the dic- 
tionary of the Delia Criiscan Academy, and canon of this 
church, ob. 1775. 

Pope Innocent II. is buried here without a tomb. 

In the left transept is a beautiful gothic tabernacle over 
an altar, erected by Cardinal d'Alencon, nephew of Charles 
de Valois, and brother of Phihppe le Bel. On one side is 
the tomb of that cardinal (the fresco represents the martyrdom 
of his patron St. Philip, who is pourtrayed as crucified Avith his 
head downwards like St. Peter) ; on the other is the monument 
of Cardinal Stefaneschi, by Paolo, one of the first sculptors 
of the fourteenth century. Opening from hence is a chapel, 
which has a curious picture of the Council of Trent by Taddeo 
Ziicchero. At the end of the right aisle are several more 
fine tombs of the sixteenth century, and the chapel of the 
Madonna di Strada Cupa, designed by Domenichino, from 
whose hand is the figure of a child scattering flowers,, 
sketched out in one corner of the vaulting. 

The upper part of the tribune is adorned with magni- 
ficent mosaics, (restored in modern times by Camuccini) of 
the time of Innocent II. 

*' In the centre of the principal group on the vault is the Saviour, 
seated, with his Mother, crowned and robed like an Eastern Queen, 
beside him, both sharing the same gorgeous throne and footstool ; 
while a hand extends from a fan-like glory with a jewelled crown held 
over his head; she (a singular detail here) giving benediction with the 
usual action ; He embracing her with the left arm, and in the right 
hand holding a tablet that displays the words ' Veni, electa mea, tt 
ponam in thronum meum ; ' to which corresponds the text, from the song 
of Solomon, on a tablet in her left hand, ' L?eva ejus sub capite meo ct 
dextera illius amplexabitur me.' Below the heavenly throne stand, each 
with name inscribed in gold letters, Innocent II., holding a model of 
this church ; St. Laurence, in deacon's vestments, with the Gospels and 
the jewelled cross ; the sainted popes, Calixtus I., Cornelius, and Julius 
I.; .St. Peter (in classic white vestments), and Calepodius, a martyr of 
the third century, here introduced because his body, together with those 
of the other saints in the same group, was brought from the catacombs 
to this church. 

"As to ecclesiastical costume, this work affords decisive evidence of 
its ancient splendour and varieties. We do not see the keys in the hands 
of St. Peter, but the large tonsure on his head ; that ecclesiastical badge 
which he is said to have invented, and which is sometimes the sole 
peculiarity (besides the cvcr-recognisable type) given to this Apostle 
in art. 



S. CALISTO. 617 

*' Above the archivolt we see a cross between the Alpha and Omega, 
and the winged emblems of the Evangelists ; laterally, Jeremiah and 
Isaiah, each with a prophetic text on a scroll ; along a frieze below, 
twelve sheep advancing from the holy cities, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, 
towards the Divine Lamb, who stands on a mount whence issue the four 
rivers of Paradise — or, according to perhaps juster interpretation, the 
four streams of gospel truth. Palms and a phoenix are seen beside the 
two prophets ; also a less common symbol — caged birds, that signify the 
righteous soul incarcerated in the body, or (with highest reference) the 
Saviour in his assumed humanity; such accessory reminding of the 
ancient usage, in some countries, of releasing birds at funerals, and of 
that still kept up amidst the magnificent canonization-rites, of offering 
various kinds of birds, in cages, at the papal throne. 

" Remembering the date of the composition before us, about a 
century and a half before the time of Cimabue and Giotto, we may hail 
in it, if not an actual Renaissance, the dawn, at least, that heralds a 
brighter day for art, compared with the deep gloom previous." — Heman^ 
Mediceval Christian Art. 

Below these are another series of mosaics representing 
six scenes in the life of the Virgin, the work of Pietro Ca- 
vallini, of the thirteenth century, when they were ordered 
by Bertoldo Stefaneschi, who is himself introduced in 
one of the subjects. In the centre of the tribune is an 
ancient marble episcopal throne, raised by a flight of 
steps. 

In the Sacristy is a picture of the Virgin with S. Rocco 
and S. Sebastiano, by Perugino. Here are preserved some 
beautiful fragments of mosaics of birds, &c., from the cata- 
combs, and the stone said to have been attached to St 
Calixtus when he was thrown into the well. 

Outside the right transept of Sta. Maria is a picturesque 
shrine, and there are many points about this ancient church 
which are interesting to the artist. The palace, which forms 
one side of the piazza at the west end of the church, formerly 
Palazzo Moro7ii, is now used as the summer residence of the 
Benedictine monks of S. Paolo, who are driven from their 
convent by the malaria during the hot months. During the 
revolutionary government of 1848 — 49, a number of priests 
suffered death here, which has led to the monastery being 
regarded as " the Cannes of Rome." The modern CJmrch 
of S. Calisto contains the well in which he suffered martyr- 
dom, A.D. 2 2 2. This well, now seen through a door near 
the altar, was then in the open air, and the pope was 
thrown into it from the window of a house in which he 
had been imprisoned and scourged, and where he had con- 



6i8 WALKS IN ROME. 

verted the soldier who was appointed to guard him. His festi 
val is celebrated here with great splendour by the monks. 

Opposite S. Calisto is the Monastery of St. An?ia, in 
which were passed the last days of the beautiful and learned 
Vittoria Colonna. As her death approached she was re- 
moved to the neighbouring house of her kinsman Giuliano 
Cesarini, and there she expired (February, 1547) in the 
presence of her devoted friend, Michael Angelo, who always 
regretted that he had not in that solemn moment ventured 
to press his lips for the first and last time to her beautiful 
countenance. She was buried, by her own desire, in the 
convent chapel, without any monument. 

Hence a lane leads to the Church of S. Cosimato^ in an 
open space facing the hill of S. Pietro in Montorio (where 
stands of seats are placed during the Girandola). A 
court-yard is entered through a low arch supported by 
two ancient columns, having a high roof with rich terra-cotta 
mouldings, — beautiful in colour. The court contains an 
antique fountain, and is exceedingly picturesque. The 
church has carefully sculptured details of cornice and 
moulding; the door is a good specimen of mediaeval 
wood-carving. Opening from the end of the left aisle is a 
very interesting chapel, decorated with frescoes, and con- 
taining a most beautiful altar of the fifteenth century, in 
honour of the saints Severa and Fortunata, with statuettes 
of Faith, Justice, Charity, and Hope. Attached to the 
church is a very large convent of Poor Clares, which pro- 
duced two saints, Theodora and Seraphina, in the fifteenth 
century. 

Following the Via della Scala, on the south side of Sta. 
Maria in Trastevere, we reach the Porta Settimiana. built by 
Alexander VI. on the site of a gateway raised by Honorius, 
which marked the position of an arch of Septimius Severus. 
This is the entrance of the Via Lungara, containing the 
Corsini and Farnesina Palaces (see Chapter XX.). The 
gateway has forked battlements, but is much spoilt by recent 
plasterings. Near this is St. Dorothea^ an ugly church, but 
important in church history from its connection with the 
foundation of the Order of the Theatins, which arose out of 
a revulsion from the sensuous age of Leo X., and as con- 
taining the tomb of their founder, Don Gaetano di Teatino, 
the friend of Paul IV. 



ST. DOROTHEA. 619 

"Des le regne de Leon X., quelques symptomes d'une reaction 
religieuse se manifesterent dans les hautes classes de la societe romaine. 
On vit un certain nombre d'hommes eminents s'aflfilier les uns aiix 
autres, afin de trouver dans de saintes pratiques assez de force pour 
resister a I'atmosphere enervante qui les entourait. lis prirent pour leur 
association le titre et les emblemes de I'amour divin, et ils s'assemble- 
rent, a des jours determines, dans I'eglise de Sainte-Dorothee, pres de la 
porte Settimiana. Parmi ces hommes de foi et d'avenir, on citait un 
archeveque, Caraffa ; un protonotaire apostolique, Gaetan de Thiene ; 
un noble Venitien aussi distingue par son caractere que par ses talents, 
Contarini ; et cinquante autres dont les noms rappellaient tons, ou une 
illustration ou une haute position sociale, tels que Lippomano, Sadolet, 
Ghiberti. 

" Mais bientot ces premiers essais de rupture avec la tendance 
generale des esprits enflammerent le zele de plusieurs des membres de 
la Congregation de V Ainou7' divin. Caraffa surtout, dont I'ame ardente 
n'avait trouve qu'anxietes et fatigue dans les grandeurs, aspirait a une 
vie d'action qui lui permit de s' employer, de tous ses moyens, a la 
reforme du monde. II trouva dans Gaetan de Thiene des dispositions 
' conformes a ce qu'il desirait. Gaetan avait cependant un caractere tres- 
dififerent du sien ; done d'une angelique douceur, craignant de se faire 
entendre, recherchant la meditation et la retraite, il eut voulu, lui aussi, 
reformer le monde, mais il n'eut pas voulu en etre connu. Les qualites 
diverses de ces deux hommes rares se combinerent heureusement dans 
1' execution du projet qu'ils avaient congu, c'etait de former des ecclesias- 
tiques voues, tout ensemble a la contemplation et a une vie austere, a la 
predication et au soin des malades ; des ecclesiastiques qui donnassent 
partout au clerge I'exemple de I'accomplissement des devoirs de sa 
sainte mission."— Goui'uerie, Ro77te Chretienne, ii. 157. 

"When Dorothea, the maiden of Csesarea, was condemned to death 
by Sapritius, she replied, ' Be it so, then I shall the sooner stand in 
the presence of Christ, my spouse, in whose garden are the fruits of 
paradise, and roses that never fade.' As she was being led to execution, 
the young Theophilus mocking said, ' O maiden, goest thou to join thy 
bridegroom ? send me then, I pray thee, of the fruits and flowers which 
grow in his garden.' And the maiden bowed her head and smiled, 
saying, 'Thy request is granted, O Theophilus,' whereat he laughed, 
and she went forward to death. 

" And behold, at the place of execution, a beautiful child, with hair 
like the sunbeam, stood beside her, and in his hand was a basket con- 
taining three fresh roses and three apples. And she said, * Take these 
to Theophilus, and tell him that Dorothea waits for him in the garden 
from whence they came.' 

' ' And the child sought Theophilus, and gave him the flowers and the 
fruits, saying, 'Dorothea sends thee these,' and vanished. And the 
heart of Theophilus melted, and he ate of the fruit from heaven, and was 
converted and professed himself one of Christ's servants, so that he also 
was martyred, and was translated into the heavenly garden." — Legend. 

This Story is told in nearly all the pictures of St, Do- 
rothea. 

Hence we reach the Ponte Sisto, built 1473 — 75 t>y Sixtus 

2 s 



620 WALKS IN ROME. 

IV. in the palace of the Pons Janiculensis, (or, according 
to Ampere, the Pons Antoninus,) which Caracalla had 
erected to reach the garden in the Trastevere, formerly be- 
longing to his brother Geta, — but which was kno^v^l as 
the Pons Fractus after a flood had destroyed part of it 
in 792. The Acts of Eusebius describe the many Christian 
martyrdoms which took place from this bridge. S, Sympho- 
rosa under Hadrian, S. Sabas under Aurelian, S. Calepo- 
dius under Alexander, and S. Anthimius under Diocletian, 
were thrown into the Tiber from hence, with many others, 
whose bodies, usually drifting to the island then called Ly-. 
caonia, were recovered there by their faithful disciples.* An 
inscription upon the bridge begs the prayers of the passengers 
for its papal founder. 

Beautiful views may be obtained from this bridge, — 
on the one side, of the island, of the temple of Vesta, and 
the Alban hills ; on the other, of St. Peter's, rising 
behind the Farnesina Gardens, and the grand mass of 
the Farnese Palace, towering above the less important 
buildings. 

" They had reached the bridge and stopped to look at the view, per- 
haps the most beautiful of all those seen from the Roman bridges. 
Looking towards the hills, the Tiber was spanned by Ponte Rotto, 
under which the old black mills were turning ceaselessly, almost level 
with the tawny water ; the sunshine fell full on the ruins of the Palatine, 
about the ba^sC of which had gathered a crowd of modern buildings , 
a brick campanile, of the middle ages, rose high above them against the 
blue sky, which Mas seen through its open arches ; beyond were the 
Latin Hills ; on the other hand, St. Peter's stood pre-eminent in the 
distance ; nearer, a stack of picturesque old houses were half hidden by 
orange-trees, where golden fruit clustered thickly ; women leant from 
the windows, long lines of flapping clothes hung out to dry ; below, the 
ferrv-boat was crossing the river, impelled by the current. Modem and 
ancient Rome all mingled together — everywhere •\\ ere thrilling names 
connected with all that was most glorious in the past. The moderns 
are richer than their ancestors, the past is theirs as well as the present." 
— Mademoiselle Mori. 

Close to the further entrance of the bridge, opposite the 
Via Giulia, is the Fouiitahi of the Ponte Sisto, built by 
Paul V. from a design of Fontana. The water, which falls 
in one body from a niche in the wall of a palace, is dis- 
charged a second time from the mouths of two monsters 
below. 

* See the Acts of the Martyrs St. Hippolylus and St. Adrian, and the Acts of St« 
Calepodius, quoted by Canina, R. Aut. p. 584. 



VIA DELL A MARMORA TA. 621 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE TRE FONTANE AND S. PAOLO. 

The Marmorata — Arco di S. Lazzaro — Protestant Cemetery — Pyramid 
of Caius Cestius — Monte-Testaccio — Porta S. Paolo — Chapel of the 
Farewell — The Tre Fontane (SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio — Sta. 
Maria Scala Coeli — S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane) — Basilica and 
Monastery of S. Paolo. 

BEYOND the Piazza Bocca della Veritk, the Via della 
Marmorata is spanned by an arch which nearly 
marks the site of the Porta Trigemina, by which Mariiis 
fled to Ostia before Sylla in B.C. 88. Near this stood the 
statue erected by public subscription to Minucius, whose 
jealousy brought about the execution of the patriot Maelius, 
B.C. 440. Here also was the temple of Jupiter Inventor, 
whose dedication was attributed to the gratitude of Hercules 
for the restoration of his cattle, carried off by Cacus to his 
cave on the neighbouring Aventine. 

It was at the Porta Trigemina that Camillus (b.c. 391), 
sent into exile to Ardea by the accusations of the plebs, 
stayed, and, stretching forth his hands to the Capitol, 
prayed to the gods who reigned there that if he was 
unjustly expelled, Rome might '' one day have need of 
Camillus." 

Passing the arch, the road skirts the wooded escarpment 
of the Aventine, crowned by its three churches — Sta. 
Sabina, S. Alessio, and the Priorato. 

" De ce cote, entre 1' Aventin et le Tibre, hors de la porte Trigemina, 
etaient divers marches, notamment le marche aux bois, le marche a la 
farine et au pain, les horrea^ magasins de bles. Le voisinage de ces 
marches, de ces magasins et de I'emporium, produisait un grand mouve- 
ment de transport et fournissait de I'occupation a beaucoup de portefaix. 
Plaute* fait allusion a ces porteurs de sacs de la porte Trigemnia. On 
pent en voir encore tous les jours remplir le meme office aumeme lieu." 
— Ampere, Hist. Rom. iv. 75. 

From the landing-place for modern Carrara marble, a 
new road on the right, planted with trees, leads along the 
river to the ancient Marmorata^ discovered 1867 — 68, when 

* Plautus, Capt. i. i, 22. 



622 WALJ^S IN ROME. 

many magnificent blocks of ancient marble were found 
buried in the mud of the Tiber. Recent excavations have 
laid bare the inclined planes by which the marbles were 
landed, and the projecting bars of stone with rings for 
mooring the marble vessels. 

In the neighbouring vineyard are the massive ruins of the 
Empormm., or magazine for merchandise, founded by M, 
^milius Lepidus and L. ^milius Paulus, the sediles in 
B.C. 1 86. Upon the ancient walls of this time is engrafted 
a small and picturesque winepress of the fifteenth century. 
The neighbouring vineyard is much frequented by marble 
collectors. 

A short distance beyond the turn to the Marmorata the 
main road is crossed by an ancient brick arch, called Arco 
di S. Lazzaro, or Arco della Salara, by the side of which is 
a hermitage. 

About half a mile beyond this we reach the Porta S. 
Paolo, built by Belisarius on the site of the Ancient Porta 
Ostiensis. 

It was here, just within the Ostian Gate, that the 
Emperor Claudius, returning from Ostia to take vengeance 
upon Messalina, was met by their two children, Octavia 
and Britannicus, accompanied by a vestal, who insisted 
upon the rights of her Order, and imperiously demanded 
that the empress should not be condemned undefended. 

"Totila entra par la porte Asinaria et une autre fois par la porte 
Ostiensis, aujourd'hui porte Saint-Paul ; par la meme porte, Genseric, 
que la mer apportait, et qui, en s'embarquant, avait dit a son pilote : 
' Conduis-moi vers le rivage que menace la colere divine.' " — AmphrCy 
Einp. ii. 325. 

Close to this, is the famous Pyramid of Caius Cesiius. 
It is built of brick, coated with marble, and is 125 feet high, 
and 100 feet wide at its square basement. In the midst is a 
small sepulchral chamber, painted with arabesques. Two 
inscriptions on the exterior show that the Caius Cestius 
buried here was a praetor, a tribune of the people, and one 
of the " Epulones " appointed to provide the sacrificial feasts 
of the gods. He died about 30 B.C., leaving Agrippa as his 
executor, and desiring by his will that his body might be 
buried, wrapped up in precious stuffs. Agrippa, however, 
applied to him the law which forbade luxurious burial, and 
spent the money, partly upon the i)}ramid and partly upon 



PYRAMID OF CAIUS CESTIUS. 62J 

erecting two colossal statues in honour of the deceased, of 
which the pedestals have been found near the tomb. In 
the middle ages this was supposed to be the sepulchre of 
Remus. 

** Cette pyramide, sauf les dimensions, est absolument semblable aux 
pyramides d'Egypte. Si Ton pouvait encore douter que celles-ci 
etaient des tombeaux, I'imitation des pyramides egyptiennes dans un 
tombeau remain serait un argument de plus pour prouver qu'elles 
avaient une destination funeraire. La chambre qu'on a trouvee dans le 
monument de Cestius etait decoree de peintures dont quelques unes 
ne sont pas encore efifacees. C'etait la coutume des peuples anciens, 
notamment des Egyptiens et des Etrusques, de peindre I'interieur des 
tombeaux, que Ton fermait ensuite soigneusement. Ces peintures, 
souvent tres-considerables, n' etaient que pour le mort, et ne devaient 
jamais etre vues par I'oeil d'un vivant. II en etait cerlainement ainsi de 
celles qui decoraient la chambre sepulchrale de la pyramide de Cestius, 
car cette chambre n'avait aucune entree. L'ouverture par laquelle on y 
penetre aujourd'hui est modeme. On avait depose le corps ou les 
cendres avant de terminer le monument, on acheva ensuile de la batir 
jusqu'au sommet." — Ampere, Emp. i. 347. 

" St. Paul was lead to execution beyond the city walls, upon the road 
to Ostia. As he issued forth from the gate, his eyes must have rested 
for a moment on that sepulchral pyramid which stood beside the road, 
and still stands unshattered, amid the svreck of so many centuries, upon 
the same spot. That spot was then only the burial-place of a single 
Roman ; it is now the burial-place of many Britons. The mausoleum 
of Caius Cestius rises conspicuously amongst humbler graves, and marks 
the site where Papal Rome suffers her Protestant sojourners to bury 
their dead. In England and in Germany, in Scandinavia and in 
America, there are hearts which turn to that lofty cenotaph as the 
sacred point of their whole horizon ; even as the English villager turns 
to the gray church tower, which overlooks the grave-stones of his 
kindred. Among the works of man, that pyramid is the only surviv- 
ing witness of the martyi-dom of St. Paul; and we may thus regard it 
with yet deeper interest, as a monument unconsciously erected by a 
pagan to the memory of a martyr. Nor let us think they who lie be- 
neath its shadow are indeed resting (as degenerate Italians fancy) in un- 
consecrated ground. Rather let us say, that a spot where the disciples 
of Paul's faith now sleep in Christ, so near the soil once watered by his 
blood, is doubly hallowed ; and that their resting-place is most fitly 
identified with the last earthly journey, and the dying glance of their 
own patron saint, the apostle of the Gentiles." — Conybeare and 
Howson. 

At the foot of the Pyramid is the Old Protestant Cejjietery^ 
a lovely spot, now closed. Here is the grave of Keats, with 
the inscription : 

"This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, 
who, on his death-bed, in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious 
power of his enemies, desired these words to be engraven on his tomb- 



624 JVALKS AV ROME. 

stone: ' Here lies one whose name was writ in water.' February 24. 
1821." ^ ^ 

*' Go thou to Rome — at once the paradise, 
The grave, the city, and the wilderness ; 
And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, 
And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress 
The bones of desolation's nakedness, 
Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead 
Thy footsteps to a slope of green access, 
Where, like an infant's smile, over the dead, 
A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread, 

And grey walls moulder round, on which dull Time 
Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand ; 
And one keen pyramid, with wedge sublime, 
Pavilioning the dust of him who planned 
This refuge for his memory, doth stand 
Like flame transformed to marble ; and beneath 
A field is spread, on which a newer band 
Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, 
Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath." 

Shelley's Adonais. 

Very near the grave of Keats is that of Augustus William 
Hare, the elder of the two brothers who wrote the '' Guesses 
at Truth," ob. 1834. 

*' When I am inclined to be serious, I love to wander up and down 
before the tomb of Caius Cestius. The Protestant burial-ground is 
there, and most of the little monuments are erected to the young — young 
men of promise, cut ofi'when on their travels full of enthusiasm, full of 
enjoyment ; brides, in the bloom of their beauty, on their first journey ; 
or children borne from home in search of health. This stone was placed 
by his fellow-travellers, young as himself, who will return to the house 
of his parents without him ; that, by a husband or a father, now in his 
native country. His heart is buried in that grave. 

" It is a quiet and sheltered nook, covered in the winter with violets ; 
and the pyramid, that overshadows it, gives it a classic and singu- 
larly solemn air. You feel an interest there, a sympathy you were 
not prepared for. You are yourself in a foreign land ; and they are for 
the most part your countrymen. They call upon you in your mother 
tongue — in English — in words unknown to a native, known only to 
yourself : and the tomb of Cestius, that old majestic pile, has this also 
in common with them. It is itself a stranger among strangers. It has 
stood there till the language spoken round about it has changed ; and 
the shepherd, born at the foot, can read the inscription no longer." — 
Rogers. 

The Neiv Burial Ground was opened in 1825. It 
extends for some distance along the slope of the hill under 
the old Aurelian Wall, and is beautifully shaded by 
cypresses, and carpeted with violets. Amid the forest of 



MONTE TESTA C CIO. ■ 625 

tombs we may notice that which contains the heart of Shelley 
(his body having been burnt upon the shore at Lerici, where 
it was thrown up by the sea), inscribed : 

" Percy Bysshe Shelley, Cor Cordium. Natus IV. Aug. MDCCXCII. 
Obiit VIII. Jul. MDCCCXXii. 

* Nothing of him that doth fade, 
But doth suffer a sea change 
Into something rich and strange.' " 

Another noticeable tomb is that of Gibson the sculptor, 
who died 1868. 

From the fields in front of the cemetery {Prati del Popolo 
Romano) rises the Mofite Testaccio^ only 160 feet in height, but 
worth ascending for the sake of the splendid view it affords. 
The extraordinary formation of this hill, which is entirely 
composed of broken pieces of pottery, has long been an 
unexplained bewilderment. 

*' Le Monte-Testaccio est pour moi des nombreux problemes qu'offrent 
les antiquites romaines le plus difficile a resoudre. On ne peut s'arreter 
a discuter serieusement la tradition d'apres laquelle il aurait ete forme 
avec les debris des vases contenant les tributs qu'apportaient a Rome les 
peuples soumis par elle. C'est la evidemment une legende du moyen age 
n^e du souvenir de la grandeur romaine et imaginee pour exprimer la 
haute idee qu'on s'en faisait, comme on avait imagine ces statues de pro- 
vinces placees au Capitple, et dont chacune portait au cou une cloche qui 
sonnait tout-a-coupd'elle-meme, quand une province se soulevait, comme 
on a pretendu que le lit du Tibre etait pave en airain par les tributs 
apportes aux empereurs romains. II faut done chercher une autre explica- 
tion." — Ampere, Emp. ii. 386. 

Just outside the Porta S. Paolo is (on the right) a vine- 
yard which belonged to Sta. Francesca Romana (born 1384, 
canonized i6o8 by Paul V.). 

" Instead of entering into the pleasures to wTiich her birth and riches 
entitled her, Sta. Francesca went every day, disguised in a coarse 
woollen garment, to her vineyard, and collected faggots, which she 
brought into the city on her head, and distributed to the poor. If the 
weight exceeded her womanly strength, she loaded therewith an ass, 
following after on foot in great humility." — Mrs. Jameson's Moncistic 
Orders. 

A straight road a mile and a half long leads from the gate 
to the basilica. Half way (on the left) is the humble chapel 
which commemorates the farewell of St. Peter and St. Paul 
on their way to martyrdom, inscribed : 

**In this place SS. Peter and Paul separated on their way to mar« 
tyrdom. 



626 WALKS AV ROME. 

"And Paul said to Peter, 'Peace be with thee, Foundation of the 
Church, Shepherd of the flock of Christ.' 

"And Peter said to Paul, 'Go in peace. Preacher of good tidings, 
and Guide of the salvation of the just.' " * 

Passing the basilica, which looks outside like a very ugly 
railway station, let us visit the scene of the martyrdom, 
before entering the grand church which arose in conse- 
quence. 

The road we now traverse is the scene of the legend of 
Plautilla. 

" St. Paul was beheaded by the sword outside the Ostian gate, about 
two miles from Rome, at a place called the Aqua Salvias, now the ' Tre 
Fontane. * The legend of his death relates that a certain Roman matron 
named Plautilla, one of the converts of St. Peter, placed herself on the 
road by which St. Paul passed to his martyrdom., to behold him for the 
last time ; and when she saw him she wept greatly, and besought his 
blessing. The apostle then, seeing her faith, turned to her, and begged 
that she would give him her veil to blind his eyes when he should be 
beheaded, promising to return it to her after his death. The attendants 
mocked at such a promise, but Plautilla, with a woman's faith and 
charity, taking off her veil, presented it to him. After his martyrdom, 
St. Paul appeared to her, and restored the veil stained with his blood. 

"In the ancient representations of the martyrdom of St. Paul, the 
legend of Plautilla is seldom omitted. In the picture by Giotto in the 
sacristy of St. Peter's, Plautilla is seen on an eminence in the back- 
ground, receiving the veil from the hands of St. Paul, who appears in 
the clouds above ; the same representation, but little varied, is executed 
in bas-relief on the bronze doors of St. Peter's." — 'Jameson^ s Sacred Art. 

The lane which leads to the Tre Fontane turns oif to the 
left a little beyond S. Paolo. 

" In all the melancholy vicinity of Rome, there is not a more melan- 
choly spot than the Tre Fontane. A splendid monaster}', rich with all 
the offerings of Christendom, once existed there: the ravages of that 
mysterious scourge of the Campagna, the malaria, have rendered it a 
desert ; three ancient churches and some ruins still exist, and a few 
pale monks wander about the swampy dismal confines of the hollow in 
which they stand. In winter you approach them through a quagmire ; 
in summer, you dare not breathe in their pestilential vicinity ; and yet 
there is a sort /^f dead beauty about the place, something hallowed as 
well as sad, which seizes on the fancy." — Jamesoii^s Sacred Art. 

The convent was bestowed in 1867 by Pius IX. upon the 
French Trappists, and twelve brethren of the Order went to 
reside there. Entering the little enclosure, the first church on 
the right is Sia. Maria Scala Cosli, supposed to occupy the 
site of the cemetery of S. Zeno, in which the 12,000 Chris* 

* See tlie Epistle of St. Denis, the Areopagite, toTiinolhy. 



SS. VINCENZO ED ANASTASIO. 627 

tians employed in building the Baths of Diocletian were 
buried. The present edifice was the work of Vignola and 
Giacomo della Porta in 1582. The name is derived from 
the legend that here St. Bernard had a vision of a ladder 
which led to heaven, its foot resting on this church, and of 
angels on the ladder leading upwards the souls whom his 
prayers had redeemed from purgatory. The mosaics in 
the apse were the work of F. Zucchero^ in the sixteenth 
century, and are perhaps the best of modern mosaics. They 
represent the saints Zeno, Bernard, Vincenzo, and Anastasio, 
adored by Pope Clement VIII. and Cardinal Aldobrandini, 
under whom the remodelling of the church took place. 

The second church is the basilica of ^»S. Vmce?izo ed 
Anastasio^ founded by Honorius I. (625), and restored by 
Honorius III. (1221), when it was consecrated afresh. It 
is approached by an atrium with a penthouse roof, sup- 
ported by low columns, and adorned with decaying frescoes, 
among which the figure of Honorius III. may be made out. 
The interior, which reeks with damp, is almost entirely of 
the twelfth century. The pillars are adorned with coarse 
frescoes of the apostles. 

** S. Vincenzo alle Tre Fontane so far deviates from the usual basilican 
arrangement as almost to deserve the appellation of gothic. It has the 
same defect as all the rest — its pier arches being too low, for which 
there is no excuse here ; but both internally and externally it shows a 
uniformity of design, and a desire to make every part ornamental, that 
produces a very pleasing effect, although the whole is merely of brick, 
and ornament is so sparingly applied as only just to prevent the building 
sinking to the class of mere utilitarian erections." — FcTgusson^s Hand- 
book of Architecture, vol. ii. 

The two saints whose relics are said to repose here were in no wise 
connected in their lifetime. S. Vincenzo, who suffered A.D. 304, was a 
native of Saragossa, cruelly tortured to death at Valencia, under Dacian, 
by being racked on a slow fire over a gridiron, " of which the bars were 
framed like scythes." Hib story is told with horrible detail by Pru- 
dentius. Anastasius, who died A.D. 628, was a native of Persia, who 
had become a Christian and taken the monastic habit at a convent near 
Jerusalem. He was tortured and finally strangled, under Chosroes, at 
Barsaloe, in Assyria. He is not known to be represented anywhere 
in art, save in the almost obliterated frescoes in the atrium of this 
church. 

The third church, S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane^ was built by 
Giacomo della Porta for Cardinal Aldobrandini in 1590. 
It contains the pillars to which St. Paul is said to have 
been bound, the block of marble upon which he is sup- 



62 S WALKS IN ROME. 

posed to have been beheaded, and the three fountains 
which sprang forth, wherever the severed head struck the 
eart a during three bounds which it made after decapitation. 
In proof of this story, it is asserted that the water of the 
first of these fountains is still warm, of the second tepid, of 
the third cold. Three modern altars above the fountains 
are each decorated with a head of the apostle in bas- 
relief 

"A la premiere, Tame vient a Tinstant meme de s'echapper du corps. 
Ce chef glorieux est plein de vie! A la seconde, les ombres de la mort 
couvrent deja ses admirables traits ; a la troisieme, le sommeil eternel 
les a eiivahis, et, quoique demeures tout rayonnants de beaute, ils disent, 
sans parler, que dans ce monde ces levres ne s'entr'ouvriront plus, et que 
ce regard d'aigle s'est voile pour toujours." — Une Chretienne a Rome.* 

The pavement is an ancient mosaic representing the 
Four Seasons, brought from the excavations at Ostia. The 
interior of this church has lately been beautified at 
the expense of a French nobleman, and the whole en- 
closure of the Tre Fontane is being improved by Mgr. 
de Merode. 

"As the martyr and his executioners passed on (from the Ostian 
gate), their way was crowded with a motley multitude of goers and 
comers between the metropolis and its harbour — merchants hastening 
to superintend the unlading of their cargoes — sailors eager to squander 
the profits of their last voyage in the dissipations of the capital — officials 
of the government charged with the administration of the provinces, or 
the command of the legions on the Euphrates or the Rhine — Chaldean 
astrologers — Phrygian eunuchs — dancing-girls from Syria, with their 
painted turbans — mendicant priests from Egypt, howling for Osiris — 
Greek adventurers, eager to coin their national cunning into Roman 
gold — representatives of the avarice and ambition, the fraud and lust, the 
superstition and intelligence, of the Imperial world. Through the dust 
and tumult of that busy throng, the small troop of soldiers threaded 
their way silently, under the bright sky of an Italian midsummer. They 
were marching, though they knew it not, in a procession more really 
triumphal than any tliey had ever followed, in the train of general or 
emperor, along the Sacred Way. Their prisoner, now at last and for ever 
delivered from captivity, rejoiced to follow his Lord 'without the gate.' 
The place of execution was not far distant, and there the sword of the 
headsman ended his long course of sufferings, and released that heroic 
soul from that feeble body. Weeping friends took up his corpse, and 
carried it for burial to those subterranean labyrinths, where, through 

♦ 'I'he accounts of the apostle's death vai-y greatly: "St. Prudentius says that 
both St. Peter and St. Paul suffered together in the same field, near a swampy 
ground, on the banks of the Tiber. Some .say St. Peter suffered on the same day 
of the month, but a year before St. Paul. But Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, and 
most others, affirm that they suffered the same year, and on the 29th of June."— 
Alban Btttler. 



S. PAOLO FUOKI LE MURA. 629 

many ages of oppression, the persecuted Church found refuge for the 
living, and sepulchres for the dead. 

" Thus died the apostle, the prophet, and the martyr, bequez. thing to 
the Church, in her government, and her discipline, the legacy of his 
apostolic labours ; leaving his prophetic words to be her living oracles ; 
pouring forth his blood to be the seed of a thousand martyrdoms. 
Thenceforth, among the glorious company of the apostles, among the 
goodly fellowship of the prophets, amang the noble army of martyrs, 
his name has stood pje-eminent. And wheresoever the holy Church 
throughout all the world doth acknowledge God, there Paul of Tarsus 
is revered, as the great teacher of a universal redemption and a catholic 
religion — the herald of glad tidings to all mankind." — Conybeare and 
Hows on. 

Let US now return to the grand Basilica which arose to 
commemorate the martyrdom on this desolate site, and 
which is now itself standing alone on the edge of the 
Campagnaj entirely deserted except by a few monks who 
linger in its monastery through the winter months, but take 
flight to St. Calisto before the pestilential malaria of the 
summer, — though in the middle ages it was not so, when S. 
Paolo was surrounded by the flourishing fortified suburb 
of Joanopolis (so called from its founder, John VIII.), 
whose possession was sharply contested in the wars between 
the popes and anti-popes.^ 

The first church on this site was built in the time of 
Constantine, on the site of the vineyard of the Roman 
matron Lucina, where she first gave a burial-place to the 
apostle. This primal oratory was enlarged into a basilica 
in 386 by the emperors Valentinian II. and Theodosius. 
The church was restored by Leo III. (795 — 816), and every 
succeeding century increased its beauty and magnificence. 
The sovereigns of England, before the Reformation, were 
protectors of this basilica — as those of France are of St. John 
Lateran, and of Spain of Sta. Maria Maggiore — and the 
emblem of the Order of the Garter may still be seen amongst 
its decorations. 

"The very abandonment of this huge pile, standing in solitary 
grandeur on the banks of the Tiber, was one source of its value. While 
it had been kept in perfect repair, little or nothing had been done to 
modernize it, and alter its primitive form and ornaments, excepting the 
later addition of some modern chapels above the transept ; it stood 
naked and almost rude, but unencumbered with the lumpish and taste- 
less plaster encasement of the old basilica in a modern Berninesque 

* It is under the shadow of S. Paolo that Cervantes (wanderings of Pcrsiles and 
Sigisraunda) places the scene of the death of Persiles. 



630 WALKS IN- ROME. 

church, which had disfigured the Lateran cathedral under pretence of 
supporting it. It remained genuine, though bare, as S. Apollinare in 
Classe, at Ravenna, the city eminently of unspoiled basilicas. No 
chapels, altars, or mural monuments softened the severity of its out- 
lines ; only the series of papal portraits, running round the upper line of 
the walls, redeemed this sternness. But the unbroken files of columns 
along each side, carried the eye forward to the great central object, the 
altar and its 'Confession ;' while the secondary row of pillars, running 
behind the principal ones, gave depth and shadow, mass and solidity, 
to back up the noble avenue along which one glanced." — Cardinal 
Wiseinan. 

On the 15th of July, 1823, this magnificent basilica was 
almost totally destroyed by fire, on the night which preceded 
the death of Pope Pius VII. 

" Quelque-chose de mysterieux s'est lie dans 1' esprit des Romains a 
I'incendie de St. Paul, et les gens a I'imagination de ce peuple parlent 
avec ce sombre plaisir qui tient a la melancolie, cfe sentiment si rare en 
Italic, et si frequent en AUemagne. Dans le grand nef, sur le mur, au 
dessus des colonnes, se trouvait la longue suite des portraits de tous les 
papes, et le peuple de Rome voyait avec inquietude qu'il n'y avait plus 
de place pour le portrait du successeur de Pie VII. De la les fruits de 
la suppression du saint-siege. Le venerable pontife, qui etait presqu' 
un martyre aux yeux de ses sujets, touchait a ses derniers moments 
lorsqu'arriva I'incendie de Saint-Paul. II eut lieu dans la nuit du 15 
au 16 Juillet, 1823 ; cette meme nuit, le pape, presque mourant, fut 
agite par un songe, qui lui presentait sans cesse un grand malheur arrive 
a I'eglise de Rome. II s'eveilla en sursaut plusieurs fois, et demanda 
s'il n'etait rien arrive de nouveau. Lelendemain, pour ne pas aggraver 
son etat, on lui cacha I'incendie, et il est mort apres sans 1' avoir jamais 
su." — Stendhal, ii. 94. 

" Not a word was said to the dying Pius VII. of the destruction of 
St. Paul. For at St. Paul's he had lived as a quiet monk, engaged in 
study and in teaching, and he loved the place with the force of an early 
attachment. It would have added a mental pang to his bodily suf- 
ferings to learn the total destruction of that venerable sanctuary, in 
which he had drawn down by prayer the blessings of heaven on his 
youthful labour." — Wiseman, Life of Pius VII. 

The restoration of the basilica was immediately begun, 
and a large contribution levied for the purpose from all 
Roman Catholic countries. In 1854 it was re-opened in its 
present fonPx by Pius IX. Its exterior is below contempt; 
its interior, supported by eighty granite columns, is most 
striking and magnificent, but it is cold and uninteresting 
when compared with the ancient structure, " rich with in- 
estimable remains of ancient art, and venerable from a 
thousand associations." * 

♦ Mrs. Jameson. 



S. PAOLO FUORI LE MURA. ' 631 

If we approach the basilica by the door on the side of 
the monastery, we enter, first, a portico, containing a fine 
statue of Gregory XVI., and many fragments of the ancient 
mosaics, collected after the fire ; — then, a series of small 
chapels which were not burnt, from the last of which ladies 
can look into the beautiful cloister of the twelfth century, 
which they are not permitted to enter, but which men may 
visit (through the sacristy), and inspect its various architec- 
tural remains, and a fine sarcophagus, adorned with reliefs 
of the story of Apollo and Marsyas. 

The church is entered by the south end of the transept. 
Hence we look down upon the nave (306 feet long and 222 
wide) with its four ranges of granite columns (quarried near 
the Lago Maggiore), surmounted by a mosaic series of por- 
traits of the popes, each five feet in diameter, — most of them 
of course being imaginary. The grand triumphal arch which 
separates the transept from the nave is a relic of the old 
basilica, and was built by Galla-Placidia, sister of Honorius, 
in 440. On the side towards the nave it is adorned with 
a mosaic of Christ adored by the twenty-four elders, and the 
four beasts of the Revelation ; — on that towards the transept 
by the figure of the Saviour, between St. Peter and St. 
Paul. 

It bears two inscriptions, the first : 

" Theodosius coepit, — perfecit Honorius aulam 
Doctoris mundi sacratam corpora Pauli." 

The other, especially interesting as the only inscription 
commemorating the great pope who defended Rome against 
Attila : 

*' Placidiae pia mens operis decus homne {sic) paterni 
Gaudet pontificis studio splendere Leonis." 

The mosaics of the tribune, also preserved from the 
fire, were designed by Cavallini, a pupil of Giotto, in the 
thirteenth century, and were erected by Honorius III. 
They represent the Saviour with St. Peter and St. Andrew 
on the right, and St. Paul and St. Luke on the left, — and 
beneath these twelve apostles and two angels. The Holy 
Innocents (supposed to be buried in this church !) are repre- 
sented lying at the feet of our Saviour. 

" In the mosaics of the old basilica of S. Paolo the Holy Innocents 
were represented by a group of small figures holding palms, and placed 
immediately beneath the altar or throne, sustai ling the gospel, the 



632 WALKS LV ROME. 

cross, and the instruments of the passion of our Lord. Over these 
figures was the inscription, H. I. S. Innocentes." — Jameson^ s Sacred 
Art. 

Beneath the triumphal arch stands the ugly modern bal- 
dacchino, which encloses the ancient altar canopy, erected, 
as its inscription tells us, by Arnolphus and his pupil 
Petrus, in 1285. In front is the " Confession," where the 
Apostle of the Gentiles is believed to repose. The baldac- 
chino is inscribed : 

'* Tu es vas electionis, 
Sancte Paule Apostole, 
Prsedicator veritatis 
In universe mundo." 

It is supported by four pillars of Oriental alabaster, 
presented by Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt. The altars 
of malachite, at the ends of the transepts, were given by the 
Emperor Nicholas of Russia. 

" Les schismatiques et les mussulmans eux-memes sont venus rendre 
hommage a ce souverain de la parole, qui entrainait les peuples au 
martyre et subjuguait toutes les nations." — Une Chretiejine a Rome. 

In a building so entirely modern, there are naturally few 
individual objects of interest. Among those saved * from 
the old basilica, is the magnificent paschal candlestick, 
covered with sculpture in high-relief. The altar at the south 
end of the transept has an altar-piece representing the 
Assumption, by Agricola, and statues of St. Benedict, 
Baifii, and Sta. Scholastica, by Tenerani. Of the two chapels 
between this and the tribune, the first has a statue of St. 
Benedict by Te?ie?-a?ii ; the second, the Cappella del Coro, 
was saved from the fire, and is by Carlo Maderno. 

The altar at the north end of the transept is dedicated 
to St. Paul, and has a picture of his conversion, by Ca- 
muccini. At the sides are statues of St. Gregory by 
Labonreur and of S. Romualdo by Stocchi. Of the 
chapels between this and the tribune, the first, dedicated to 
St. Stephen, has a statue of the saint, by Rinaldi ; the 
second is dedicated to St. Bridget (Brigitta Brahe), and 
contains the famous crucifix of Pietro Cavallini, which is 
said to have spoken to her in 1370. 

• Among the most interesting of the objects lost in the fire were the bronze gates 
ordered by Hildebrand (afterwards Gregory VII.) when legate at Constantinople:, 
for Pantaleone Castelii, in 1070, and adorned with fifty-four scriptural- compositions, 
wrought in silver thread. 



THE RIVER ALMO. 633 

"Not far from the chancel is a beautiful chapel, dedicated to St. 
Bridget, and ornamented with her statue in marble. During her re- 
sidence in Rome, she frequently came to pray in this church ; and I ere 
is preserved, as a holy relic, the cross from which, during her ecstatic 
devotion, she seemed to hear a voice proceeding." — Fj-edenka Bremer. 

The upper walls of the nave are decorated with frescoes 
by Galiardi^ Fodesti, and other modern artists. 

The two great festivals of St. Paul are solemnly observed 
in this basihca upon January 25 and June 30, and that of 
the Holy Innocents upon December 28. 

Very near S. Paolo, the main branch of the little river 
Almo, the " cursuque brevissimus Almo " of Ovid, falls into 
the Tiber. This is the spot where the priests of Cybele 
used to wash her statue and the sacred vessels of her 
temple, and to raise their loud annual lamentation for the 
death of her lover, the shepherd Atys : 

" Est locus, in Tiberim quo lubricus influit Almo, 
Et nomen magno perdit ab amne minor, 
Illic purpurea canus cum veste sacerdos, 
Almonis dominam sacraque lavit aquis." 

Ovid, Fast. iv. 337. 

** Phrygiseque matris Almo qua levat ferrum." 

Martial, Ep. iii. 472. 

*' Un vieux pretre de Cybele, vetu de pourpre, y lavait chaque annee la 
pierre sacree de Pessinunte, tandis que d'autres pretres poussaient des 
hurlements, frappaient sur le tambour de basque qu'on place aux mains 
de Cybele, soufflaient avec fureur dans les flutes phrygiennes, et que 
Ton se donnait la discipline, — ni plus ni moins qu'on le fait encore 
dans I'eglise des Caravite, — avec des fouets gamis de petits cailloux 
ou d'osselets." — Ampere, Hist. Rofn. iii. 145. 

The Campagna on this side of Rome is perhaps more 
stricken by malaria than any other part, and is in con- 
sequence more utterly deserted. That this terrible scourge 
has followed upon the destruction of the villas and gardens 
which once filled the suburbs of Rome, and that it did not 
always exist here, is evident from the account of Pliny, who 
says : 

" Such is the happy and beautiful amenity of the Campagna that it 
seems to be the work of a rejoicing nature. For truly so it appears in 
the vital and perennial salubrity of its atmosphere {vitalis ac perennis 
salubritatis coeli temperies), in its fertile plains, sunny hills, healthy 
woods, thick gi'oves, rich varieties of trees, breezy mountains, fertility in 
fruits, vines, and olives, its noble flocks of sheep, abundant herds of 
cattle, numerous lakes, and wealth of rivers and streams pouring in 



634 IVALA'S IN ROME. 

upon it, many seapox-ts, in whose lap the commerce of the world lies, 
and which run largely into the sea as it were to help mortals." 

Under the emperors, the town of Ostia (founded by 
Ancus Martius) reached such a degree of prosperity, that 
its suburbs are described as joining those of Rome, so that 
one magnificent street almost united the two. There is now, 
beyond S. Paolo, a road through a desert, only one human 
habitation breaking the utter solitude. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE VILLAS BORGHESE, MADAMA, AND 
MELLINL 

Protestant Churches— Villa Borghese — Raphael's Villa — Casino and 
Villa of Papa Giulio — (Claude's Villa — Arco-Oscuro — Acqua-' 
Acetosa)— Chapel of St. Andrew — Ponte-Molle (Castle of Cres- 
cenza — Prima Porta — The Crimera — The Allia) — (The Via Cassia) 
— Villa Madama — Monte Mario — Villa Mellini — Porta Angelica. 

IMMEDIATELY outside the Porta del Popolo, on the 
left, are the English and American churches. 

** As to the position selected for these buildings, it is to be observed 
that, although restricted by the regulations of the Roman Catholic 
hierarchy to a locality outside the walls, the gi-eatest possible attention 
has been paid to the convenience of the English, the great majority of 
whose dwelling-houses are in this immediate quarter. The English 
church in Rome, therefore, though nominally outside the walls, is really, 
as regards centrality, in the very heart of the city. The greatest possible 
facilities are afforded by the authorities to our countrymen in all matters 
relating to the establishment ; and though the general behaviour of the 
Roman inhabitants is such as to render the precaution almost unneces- 
sary, the protection of the police and military is invariably afforded 
during the hours of divine service Whatever be the dis- 
agreements on points of religious faith between Protestant and Catholic, 
there is at least one point of feeling in common between both in this 
respect ; for the streets are tranquil, the shops are shut, the demeanour 
of the people is decent and orderly, and, notwithstanding the distance 
from England, Sunday feels more like a Sunday at Rome than in any 
other town in Europe." — Sir G. Head^s " Tour in Rome.'" 

The papal government of Rome had more tolerance for 
a religi n which was not its own than that of the early 



VILLA BORGHESE. 635 

emperors. Augustus refused to allow the performance of 
Egyptian rites within a mile of the city walls. 

On the right of the Gate is the handsome entrance of the 
beautiful Villa Borghese, most liberally thrown open to the 
public on every day except Monday, when the Villa Doria 
is open 

"The entrance to the Villa Borghese is just outside the Porta del 
Popolo. Passing beneath that not very impressive specimen of Michael 
Angelo's architecture, a minute's walk will transport the visitor from the 
small uneasy lava stones of the Roman pavement, into broad, gravelled 
carriage drives, whence a little further stroll brings him to the soft turf 
of a beautiful seclusion. A seclusion, but seldom a solitude ; for priest, 
noble, and populace, stranger and native, all who breathe the Roman 
air, find free admission, and come hither to taste the languid enjoyment 
of the day-dream which they call life. 

** The scenery is such as arrays itself to the imagination when we read 
the beautiful old myths, and fancy a brighter sky, a softer turf, a more 
picturesque arrangement of venerable trees, than we find in the rude and 
untrained landscapes of the western world. The ilex-trees, so ancient 
and time-honoured are they, seem to have lived for ages undisturbed, 
and to feel no dread of profanation by the axe any more than overthrow 
by the thunder-stroke. It has already passed out of their dreamy old 
memories that only a i&'w years ago they were grievously imperilled by 
the Gauls' last assault upon the walls of Rome. As if confiden^iu the 
long peace of their lifetime, they assume attitudes of evident repose. 
They lean over the green turf in ponderous grace, throwing abroad their 
great branches without danger of interfering with other trees, though 
other majestic trees grow near enough for dignified society, but too dis- 
tant for constraint. Never was there a more venerable quietude than 
that which sleeps among their sheltering boughs ; never a sweeter sun- 
shine than that which gladdens the gentle bloom which these leafy 
patriarchs strive to diffuse over the swelling and subsiding lawns. 

"In other portions of the grounds the stone pines lift their dense 
clumps of bi-anches upon a slender length of stem, so high that they 
look like green islands in the air, flinging down a shadow upon the turf 
so far off that you scarcely know which tree has made it. 

" Again, there are avenues of cypress, resembling dark flames of huge 
funeral candles, which spread dusk and twilight round about them in- 
stead of cheerful radiance. The more open spots are all a-bloom, early 
in the season, with anemones of wondrous size, both white and rose- 
coloured, and violets that betray themselves by their rich fragrance, even 
if their blue eyes fail to meet your own. ^Daisies, too, ai-e abundant, 
but larger than the modest little English flower, and therefore of small 
account. 

"These wooded and flowery lawns are more beautiful than the finest 
English park scenery, more touching, more impressive, through the 
neglect that leaves nature so much to her own ways and methods. 
Since man seldom interferes with her, she sets to work in her quiet way 
an.l makes herself at home. There is enough of human care, it is true, 
bestowed long ago, j^nd stfll bestpwed, to prevent wildness from growing 

2T 



636 WALK'S AV ROME. 

into deformity ; and the result is an ideal landscape, a woodland scene 
that seems to have been pi-ojected out of the j>oet's mind. If the ancient 
Faun were other than a mere creation of old poetry, and could reappear 
anywhere, it must be in such a scene as this. 

" In the openings of the wood there are fountains plashing into marble 
basons, the depths of which are shagg>' with water-weeds ; or they 
tumble like natural cascades from rock to rock, sending their murmur 
afar, to make the quiet and silence more appreciable. Scattered here 
and there with careless artifice, stand old altars, bearing Roman inscrip- 
tions. Statues, grey with the long corrosion of even that soft atmosphere, 
half hide and half reveal themselves, high on pedestals, or perhaps 
fallen and broken on the turf. Terminal figures, columns of marble or 
granite porticoes and arches, are seen in the vistas of the wood-paths, 
either veritable relics of antiquity, or with so exquisite a touch of artful 
ruin on them that they are better than if really antique. At all events, 
grass grows on the tops of the shattered pillars, and weeds and flowers 
root themselves in the chinks of the massive arches and fronts of 
temples, as if this were the thousandth summer since their winged seeds 
alighted there. 

" What a strange idea — what a needless labour — to construct artificial 
ruins in Rome, the native soil of ruin ! But even these sportive imita- 
tions, wrought by man in emulation of what time has done to temples 
and palaces, are perhaps centuries old, and, beginning as illusions, have 
grown to be venerable in sober earnest. The result of all is a scene, 
such as is to be found nowhere save in these princely villa-residences in 
the neighbourhood of Rome ; a scene that must have required genera- 
tions and ages, during which growth, decay, and man's intelligence 
wrought kindly together, to render it so gently wild as we behold it 
now, 

' ' The final charm is bestowed by the malaria. There is a piercing, 
thrilling, delicious kind of regret in the idea of so much beauty being 
thrown away, or only enjoyable at its half-development, in winter and 
early spring, and never to be dwelt amongst, as the home scenery of any 
human being. For if you come hither in summer, and stray through 
these glades in the golden sunset, fever walks arm-in-arm with you, and 
death awaits you at the end of the dim vista. Thus the scene is like 
Eden in its loveliness ; like Eden, too, in the fatal spell that removes it 
beyond the scope of man's actual possessions." — Transformation. 

" Oswald et Corinne terminerent leur voyage de Rome par la Villa- 
Borghese, celui de tous les jardins et de tous les palais remains ou les 
splendeurs de la nature et des arts sont rassemblees avec le plus de gout 
et d'eclat. On y voit des arbres de toutes les especes et des eaux mag- 
nifiques. Une reunion incroyable de statues, de vases, de sarcophages 
antiques, se melent avec la fraicheur de la jeune nature du sud. La 
mythologie des anciens y semble ranimee. Les naiades sont placees sur 
le bord des ondes, les nymphes dans les bois dignes d'elles, les tombeaux 
sous les ombrages elyseens; la statue d'Esculape est au milieu d'une 
lie; celle de Venus semble sortir des ondes; Ovide et Virgile pourraient 
se promener dans ce beau lieu; et se croire encore au siecle d'Auguste. 
Les chefs-d'oeuvre de sculpture que renferme le palais, lui donnent 
une magnificence a jamais nouvelle. On aper9oit de loin a Iravors les 
arbres, la ville de Rome et Saint-Pierre, et la campagne, et les longues 



VILLA BORGHESE. 637 

arcades, debris des aqueducs qui transportaient les sources des montagnes 
dans I'ancienne Rome. Tout est la pour la pensee, pour rimagination, 
pour la reverie. 

"Les sensations les plus pures se confondent avec les plaisirs de 
I'ame, et donnent Fidee d'un bonheur parfait ; mais quand on demande, 
pourquoi ce sejour ravissant n'est-il pas habite? Ton vous repond que le 
mauvais air {la cattiva aria) ne permet pas d'y vivre pendant I'ete." — 
Madame de Stael. 

The Casifio, at the further end of the villa, built by Car- 
dinal Scipio Borghese, the favourite nephew of Paul V., 
contains a collection of sculpture. The first room entered 
is a great hall, with a ceiling painted by Mario J^ossi, and a 
floor paved with an ancient mosaic discovered at the Torre 
Nuova (one of the principal Borghese farms) in 1835. 

" Cette mosaique fort curieuse nous ofifre et les combats des gladia- 
teurs entre eux et leurs luttes avec les animaux feroces. Cette mosaique 
est d'un dessin aussi barbare que les scenes representees ; tout est en 
harmonie, le sujet et le tableau. Le sentiment de repulsion qu'inspire 
la cruaute romaine n'en est que plus complet ; celle-ci n'est point adoucie 
par I'art et parait dans toute sa laideur. 

" On voit les gladiateurs poursuivre, s'attaquer, se massacrer, converts 
d'armures qui ressemblent a celle des chevaliers : vous diriez une odieuse 
parodie du moyen age. Dans le corps de I'un des combattants un glaive est 
enfonce. Des cadavres sont gisant parmi les flaques de sang ; a cote d'eux 
est le fatal, initiale du mot grec Odvarog — k laquelle leur juge impitoy- 
able, le peuple, les a condamnes ; du grec partout. Le maitre excite ses 
eleves on leur montrant le fouet et la palme ; les vainqueurs elevent leurs 
epees, et sans doute la foule applaudit. lis ont un air de triomphe. Ce 
sont des acteurs renommes. Aupres de chacun son nom est ecrit ; ces 
noms barbares ou etranges : I'un s'appelle Buccibus, un autre Cupidor, un 
autre Licentiosus, avis effronte aux dames romaines." — Ampere, iv. 31. 

The collection in this villa contains no exceedingly im- 
portant statues. In the vestibule are some reliefs from the 
arch of Claudius in the Corso, destroyed in 1527. Leaving 
the great hall to the left we may notice : 

\st Room. — 
In the Centre: 

Juno Pronuba, from Monte Calvi. 

2nd Room. — 
In the Centre : 

A Fighting Amazon, on horseback. 

yd Room. — 

4. Daphne changed into a Laurel. 
13. Anacreon, seated. 

"La statue d' Anacreon est tres-remarquable, elle ressemble \ la 



638 WALKS IN- ROME. 

figure du poete sur une medaille de Teos. Le style est simple et gran- 
diose, I'expression energique plutot que gracieuse, la draperie est rude, 
la statue respire I'enthousiasme; ce n'est pas le faux Anacreon que nous 
connaissons et dont les poesies sont posterieures au moins en grande 
partie a la date du veritable ; c'est le vieil et primitif Anacreon ; cet 
Anacreon-la ne vit plus que dans cet energique porti-ait, seule image de 
son inspiration veritable, dont les produits authentiques ont presque 
entierement disparu." — Ai}ipcre, Hist. Rom. iii. 567. 

4M Ro07n. — 
A handsome gallery with paintings hy Marchetti zvA De A ngeiis^ 

adorned with porphyry busts of the twelve Caesars. 
32. Bronze statue of a boy. 
6fh Room. — 
In the Centre : 

A Greek poet, probably Alcseus. 
7. The Hermaphrodite ; found near Sta. Maria Vittoria. 

'jth Room. — 

In the Centre : 

Boy on a Dolphin. 

" D'autres statues peuvent deriver de la grande composition maritime 
de Scopas. Tel est la Palemon, assis sur un dauphin, de la villa Bor- 
ghese,d'apres lequel a ete evidemment con9u le Jonas del'eglise de Sainte- 
Mariedu Peuple, qu'on attribue a Raphael." — Afrtphr^Hist, AW/, iii. 284. 

%th Room. — 

I. Dancing Satyr. 
The Upper Story, reached by a winding staircase from 
the Galleria, contains : 

ist Room. — Three fine works by Bernini. 
David with the sling : executed in his i8th year. 
Apollo and Daphne. 

^neas carrying off Anchises : executed when the sculptor was only 
15 years old. 

27id Room. — 
Filled with a collection of portraits, for the most part unknown. 
Worthy of attention are the portraits of Paul V. by Carava^gio,2LX\di 
of his father Maix- Antonio Borghese, attributed to Gtiido; also 
the busts of Paul V. and of Cardinal Scipio Borghese, who built 
the villa, by Bernini. 

^th Room. — 

Statue of Princess Pauline Borghese, sister of Napoleon I., by 
Canova, as Venus-Victrix. 

*' Canova esteemed his statue of the Princess Borghese as one of his 
best works. No one else could have an opportunity of judging of it, 
for the prince, who certainly was not jealous of his wife's person, was so 



VILLA OF RAPHAEL. 639 

jealous of her statue, that he kept it locked up in a room in the Borghese 
Palace, of which he kept the key, and not a human being, not even 
Canova himself, could get access to it." — Eaton s Rome. 

Canova took Chantrey to see this statue by night, wishing, as was his 
wont, to show it by the light of a single taper. Chantiey, wishing to do 
honour to the artist, insisted upon holding the taper for the best light 
himself, which gave rise to Moore's lines : 

" When he, thy peer in art and fame, 
Hung o'er the marble with delight ; 
And while his ling'ring hand would steal 

O'er every grace the taper's rays, 
Gave thee, with all the generous zeal 
Such master-spirits only feel, 

The best of fame — a rival's praise ! " 

In the upper part of the grounds, not far from the walls 
of Rome, stood the Villa Olgiati, once the Villa of Raphael. 
It contained three rooms ornamented with frescoes from the 
hand of the great master. The best of these are now pre- 
served in a room at the end of the gallery in the Borghese 
Palace. The villa was destroyed during the siege of Rome 
in 1849, when many of the fine old trees were cut down on 
this side of the grounds. 

" The Casino of Raphael was unfurnished, except with casks of wine, 
and uninhabited, except by a contadina. The chamber which was the 
bedroom of Raphael was entirely adorned with the work of his own 
hands. It was a small pleasant apartment, looking out on a little green 
lawn, fenced in with trees irregularly planted. The walls were covered 
with arabesques, in various whimsical and beautiful designs — such as the 
sports of children ; Loves balancing themselves on poles, or mounted 
on horseback, full of glee and mirth ; Fauns and Satyrs ; Mercury and 
Minerva ; flowers and curling tendrils, and every beautiful composition 
that could suggest itself to a classic imagination in its most sportive 
mood. The cornice was supported by painted Caryatides. The coved 
roof was adorned with four medallions, containing portraits of his 
mistress, the Fornarina — it seemed as if he took pleasure in multiplying 
that beloved object, so that wherever his eyes turned her image might 
meet them. There were three other paintings, one representing a Ter- 
minus with a target before it, and a troop of men shooting at it with bows 
and arrows which they had stolen from unsuspecting Cupid, lying asleep 
on the ground. The second represented a figure, apparently a god, seated 
at the foot of a couch, with an altar before him, in a temple or rotunda, 
and from the gardens which appeared in perspective through its open 
intercolumniations, were seen advancing a troop of gay young nymphs, 
bearing vases full of roses upon their heads. * .... The last and 
best of these paintings represented the nuptials of Alexander the Great 
and Roxana." — Eatoii^ s Rome. 

Just outside the Porta del Popolo, a small gate on the 

• This picture is now called the Nuptials of Vertumnus and Pomona, 



640 IVALKS IN ROME. 

left of the Villa Borghese leads to the Villa Esmeade, — the 
property of an Englishman, — of considerable extent, and pos- 
sessing beautiful views of Rome and the Sabine mountains 
from its heights, which are adorned with a few ancient statues 
and vases. 

Unpleasantly situated near the gate of the Villa Borghese 
is the Pig-market. Fortunately the manner of pig-killing at 
Rome is not so noisy as that in northern countries. The 
throats of the animals are not cut, but they are pierced under 
the left shoulder with a long pointed bodkin, which kills 
them almost instantly — no blood flowing. In a very few 
minutes a whole pen-full of pigs can be stilettoed in this 
manner — indeed, for any one interested in farming matters, 
the slaughter of the Roman pigs is a sight worth seeing. 

We now enter upon the ugly dusty road which leads in a 
straight line to the Milvian Bridge. By this road the last 
triumphal procession entered Rome — that of the Emperor 
Honorius and Stilicho (described by the poet Claudian) in 
A.D. 403 — a whole century having then elapsed since the 
Romans had beheld their last triumph — that of Diocletian. 

Under the line of hills (Monte Parioli) on the right of the 
road are the Catacombs of St. Vak?iti?ie. On the other side 
the same hills are undermined by the Catacombs of SS. 
Gianutus a^id B as ilia. 

Half a mile from the gate, rises conspicuously on the 
right of the road the Casino of Papa Giulio, with picturesque 
overhanging cornices and sculptured fountain. The court- 
yard has a quaint cloister. This is the " Villino," and, far 
behind, but formerly connected with it by a long corridor, is 
the Villa of Fapa Giulio containing several rooms with 
very richly decorated ceilings, painted by Taddeo Zucchero. 
Michael Angelo was consulted by the pope as to the build- 
ing of this villa, and Vasari made drawings for it, but " the 
actual architect was Vignola, a modest genius, who had to 
suffer severely, together with all his fellow-workmen, from 
the tracasseries of the pope's favourite, the bishop Aliotti, 
whom the less-enduring Michael Angelo was wont to nick- 
name Monsignor Tante Cose." 

** The villa of Papa Giulio is still visited by the stranger. Restored to 
the presence of those times, he ascends the spacious steps to the gallery, 
Avhence he overlooks the whole extent of Rome, from Monte Mario, 
wiih all the windings of the Tiber. The building of this palace, the 



CLAUDES VILLA—POUSSIN'S WALK. 641 

laying out of its gardens, were the daily occupation of Pope Julius III. 
The place was designed by himself, but was never completed : every 
day brought with it some new suggestion or caprice, which the archi- 
tects must at once set themselves to realize. This pontiff desired to 
forward the interests of his family ; but he was not inclined to involve 
himself in dangerous perplexities on their account. The pleasant 
blameless life of his villa was that which was best suited to him. He 
gave entertainments, which he enlivened with proverbial and other modes 
of expression, that sometimes mingled blushes with the smiles of his 
guests. In the important affairs of the church and state, he took no 
other share than was absolutely inevitable. This Pope Julius died 
March 23, 1555." — Rajike's Hist, of the Popes. 

" C'est uniquement comme protecteur des arts et comme prince magni- 
fique que nous pouvons envisager Jules III. Sa mauvaise sante lui faisait 
rechercher le repos et les douceurs d'une vie grande et libre. Aussi 
avait-il fait edifier avec une sorte de tendresse paternelle cette belle 
villa, qui est celebre, dans I'histoire de I'art, sous le nom de Vigne de 
pape Jules. Michel- Ange, Vasari, Vignole en avaient dessine les profils ; 
les nymphees et les fontaines etaient d'Ammanati ; les peintures de 
Taddeo Zuccari. Du haut d'une galerie elegante on decouvrait les sept 
collines, et d'ombreuses allees, tracees par Jules III., egaraient les pas 
du vieillard dans ce dedale de tertres et de vallees qui separe le pont ou 
perit Maxence de la ville eternelle." — Gournerie, Rome Chreiiemie, ii. 
172. 

Pope Julius used to come hither, with all his court, from 
the Vatican by water. The richly-decorated barge, filled 
with venerable ecclesiastics, gliding between the osier-fringed 
banks of the yellow Tiber, with its distant line of churches 
and palaces, would make a fine subject for a picture. 

Nearly opposite the Casino Papa Giulio, on the further 
bank of the Tiber, is the picturesque classic Villa of Claude 
Lo7'raine, whither he was wont to retire during the summer 
months, residing in the winter in the Tempietto at the head 
of the Trinita steps. This villa is best seen from the walk 
by the river-side, which is reached by turning at once to 
the left on coming out of the Porta del Popolo. Hence it 
makes a good foreground to the view of the city and distant 
heights of the Janiculan. 

"This road is called ' Poussin's Walk,' because the great painter 
used to go along it from Rome to his villa near Ponte Molle. One 
sees here an horizon such as one often finds in Poussin's pictures." — 
Frederika Brerner. 

Close to the Villa Papa Giulio is the tunnel called Area 
Oscuro, passing which, a steep lane with a beautiful view 
towards St. Peter's, ascends between the hillsides of the 
Monte Parione, and descends on the other side (following 



642 WALKS IN ROME. 

the turn to the right) to the Tiber bank, about two miles 
from Rome, where is situated the Acqua Acetosa^ a refreshing 
mineral spring like seltzer water, enclosed in a fountain 
erected by Bernini for Alexander VII. There is a lovely 
view from hence across the Campagna in the direction of 
Fidenae (Castel Giubeleo) and the Tor di Quinto, 

" A green hill, one of those bare table-lands so common in the 
Campagna, rises on the right. Ascend it to where a broad furrow in 
the slope seems to mark the site of an ancient road. You are o\\ 
a plateau, almost quadrangular in form, rising steeply to the height 
of nearly two hundred feet above the Tiber, and isolated, save at one 
angle, where it is united to other high ground by a narrow isthmus. 
Not a tree — not a shrub on its turf-grown surface — not a house —not a 
ruin — not one stone upon another, to tell you that the site had been in- 
habited. Yet here once stood Antemnae, the city of many towers,* one 
of the most ancient of Italy ! t Not a trace remains above ground. Even 
the broken pottery, that infallible indicator of bygone civilisation, which 
marks the site and determines the limits of habitation on many a now- 
desolate spot of classic ground, is here so overgrown with herbage that 
the eye of an antiquary would alone detect it. It is a site strong by 
nature, and well adapted for a city, as cities then were ; for it is scarcely 
larger than the Palatine Hill, which, though at first it embraced the 
whole of Rome, was afterwards too small for a single palace. It has a 
peculiar interest as one of the three cities of Sabina, % whose daughters, 
ravished by the followers of Romulus, became the mothers of the 
Roman race. Antemnae was the nearest city to Rome — only three miles 
distant — and therefore must have suffered most from the inhospitable 
violence of the Romans." — Dennis Cities of Etno-ia, ch. iii. 

There is a walk — rather dangerous for carriages — by tlie 
river, from hence, to the Ponte Molle. Here Miss Bathurst 
was drowned by being thrown from her horse into the 
Tiber. 

The river bank presents a series of picturesque views, 
though the yellow Tiber in no way reminds us of Virgil's 
description : 

**Caeruleus Tybris coelo gratissimus amnis." 

^En. viii. 64. 

Continuing to follow the main road, on the left is the 
round Church of St. Andrew, with a Doric portico, built by 
Vignola, in 1527, to commemorate the deliverance of 
Clement VII. from the Germans. 

* Turrigerse Antemnae. — Virg. y^n. vii. 631. 

t Antcmnaque prisco 

Crustumio prior. 
X The other two were Csecina and Crustumium. 



CHAPEL OF ST. ANDREW. 643 

Further, on the right, is another Chapel ifi honour of St. 
Andrew's Head. 

*' One of the most curious instances of relique worship occurred here 
in the reign of ^Eneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II. The head of St, Andrew 
was brought in stately procession from the fortress of Narni, whither, 
as the Turks invaded the Morea, it had been brought for safety from 
Patras. It was intended that the most glorious heads of St. Peter and 
St. Paul should go forth to meet that of their brodier apostle. But the 
mass of gold which enshrined, the cumbrous iron which protected these 
reliques, was too heavy to be moved ; so, without them, the pope, th-e 
cardinals, the whole population of Rome, thronged forth to the meadoM's 
near the Milvian Bridge. The pope made an eloquent address to the 
head, a hymn was sung entreating the saint's aid in the discomfiture of 
the Turks. It rested that day on the altar of Santa Maria del Popolo, 
and was then conveyed through the city, decorated with all splendour, to 
St. Peter's. Cardinal Bessarion preached a sermon, and the head was 
deposited with those of his brother apostles under the high-altar." — 
Milman^s Latin Christianity. 

A mile and a half from the gate, the Tiber is crossed 
by the Pofite Molle^ built by Pius VII. in 1815, on the site 
and foundations of the Pons Milvius, which was erected 
B.-c. 109 by the Censor M. ^milius Scaurus. It was here 
that, on the night of December 3, B.C. d-^^ Cicero captured 
the emissaries of the AUobrogi, who were engaged in the 
conspiracy of Catiline. Hence, on October 27, a.d. 312, 
Maxentius was thrown into the river and drowned after his 
defeat by Constantine at the Saxa Rubra. It was on this 
occasion that the seven-branched candlestick of Jerusalem 
was dropped into the river, where it has probably ever since 
been embedded. The statues of Our Saviour and John 
the Baptist, at the further entrance of the bridge, are by 
Mochi. 

Here are a number of taverns and Tratforie, much fre- 
quented by the lower ranks of the Roman people, and for 
which especial open omnibuses run from the Porta del 
Popolo. Similar places of public .'amusement seem to have 
existed here from imperial times. Ovid describes the 
people coming out hither in troops by the Via Flaminia to 
celebrate the fete of Anna Perenna, an old woman who sup- 
phed the plebs with cakes during the retreat to the Mons 
Sacer, but who afterwards, from a similitude of names, was 
confounded with Anna, sister of Dido. 

** Idibus est Annse festum geniale Perennse, 
Haud procul a ripis, advena Tibri, tuis. 



644 WALKS IN ROME. 

Plebs venit, ac virides passim disjecta per herbas 

Potat ; et accumbit cum pare quisque sua. 
Sub Jove pars durat ; pauci tentoria ponunt : 

Sunt, quibus e ramo frondea facta casa est : 
Pars, ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis, 

Desuper extentas imposuere togas. 
Sole tamen vinoque calent ; annosque precantur, 

Quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt. 
Invenies illic, qui Nestoris ebibat annos : 

Quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos. 
Illic et cantant, quidquid didicere theatris, 

Et jactant faciles ad sua verba manus : 
Et ducunt posito duras cratere choreas, 

Multaque dififusis saltat arnica comis. 
Ciim redeunt, titubant, et sunt spectacula vulgo, 

Et fortunatos obvia turba vocant. 
Occurri nuper. Visa est mihi digna relatu 

Pompa : senem potum pota trahebat anus." 

Fast, iii. 523. 

Here three roads meet. That on the right is the old 
Via Flaminia, begun B.C. 220 by C. Flaminius the censor. 
This was the great northern road of Italy, which, issuing 
from the city by the Porta Ratumena, which was close to 
the tomb of Bibulus, followed a line a little east of the 
modern Corso, and passed the Aurelian wall by the Porta 
Flaminia, near the present Porta del Popolo. It extended 
to Ariminum (Rimini) a distance of 210 miles.* 

(Following this road for about i^ mile, on the left are the 
ruins called Toj- di Quinto. A little further on the right of 
the road are some tufa-rocks, with an injured tomb of the 
Nasones. Following the valley under these rocks to the left 
we reach (i^ mile) the fine Castle of Cresce7iza, now a farm- 
house, picturesquely situated on a rocky knoll, — once in- 
habited by Poussin, and reproduced in the background of 
many of his pictures. In the interior are some remains of 
ancient frescoes. 

On this road, seven miles from Rome, is Prima Porta, 
where are the ruins of the Villa of Livia^ wife of Augustus, and 
mother of Tiberius. When first opened, several small rooms 
in the villa, supposed to be baths, were covered with frescoes 
and arabesques in a state of the most marvellous beauty and 
preservation, but they are now greatly injured by damp and 
exposure. From the character of the paintings, a trellis- 
work of fruit and flowers, amid which birds and insects are 

* See Dyer's Hist, of the City of Rome. 




THE C RIM ERA. ^ 645 

sporting, it is supposed that they are the wo/jc of Ludiu/, x 
described in PUny, who " divi Augusti aetata' primus^ in sti-''y\^.^ 
tuit amoenissimam parietum picturam, villas t 'et jDorticus ac \^^^^>, 

topiaria opera, lucos, nemora blandissimo as- 

pectu minimoque impendio." It was here that the ^nag- 
nificent statue of Augustus, now in the Braqsio'^Nuovo of^ 
the Vatican, was discovered in 1863. )' O' ^ 

"What Augustus's afifection for Livia was, is well koowA. 'Pre-X^ 
serve the remembrance of a husband who has loved you very ienderly,' O^-^ 
were the last words of the emperor, as he lay on his death^a. And 
when asked how she contrived to retain his affection, Dion C«^^:£fclls 
us that she replied, ' My secret is very simple : I have mad 
study of my life to please him, and I have never manifested 
indiscreet curiosity with regard to his public or private affairs 
Weld. 

Just beyond this, the Tiber receives the little river Valca^ 
considered to be identical with the Crimera. Hither the 
devoted clan of the Fabii, 4000 in number, retired from 
Rome, having offered to sustain, at their own cost and risk, 
the war which Rome was then carrying on against Veii. 
Here, because they felt a position within the city unten- 
able on account of the animosity of their fellow-patricians, 
which had been excited by their advocacy of the agra- 
rian law, and their popularity with the plebeians, they 
established themselves on a hillock overhanging the river, 
which they fortified, and where they dwelt for three years. 
At the end of that time the Veiientines, by letting loose 
herds of cattle like the Vaccine, which one still sees 
wandering in that part of the Campagna, drew them into 
an ambuscade, and they were all cut off to a man. Ac- 
cording to Dionysius, a portion of the little army remained 
to guard the fort, and the rest fled to another hill, perhaps 
that now known as Vaccareccia. These were the last to 
be exterminated. 

"They fought from dawn to sunset. The enemy slain by their hand 
formed heaps of corpses which barred their passage." — They were sum- 
moned to surrender, but they preferred to die. — "The people of Veii 
showered arrows and stones upon them from a distance, not daring to 
approach them again. The arrows fell like thick snow. The Fabii, with 
swords blunted by force of striking, with bucklers broken, continued to 
fight, snatching fresh swords from the hands of the enemy, and rushing 
upon them with the ferocity of wild beasts." — Dionysius, ix. 21. 

A little beyond this, ten miles from Rome, is the stream 
Scantiabecchi, which descends from the Crustuminian Hills, 



646 WALKS IN ROME. 

and is identical with the AlHa " infaustum AlHa nomen," 
where the Romans were (b.c. 390) entirely defeated with 
great slaughter by the Gauls, before the capture of the city, 
in which the aged senators were massacred at the doors of 
their houses. 

It was in the lands lying between the villa of Livia and 
the Tiber that Saxa Rubra ^ was situated, where Constantine 
(a.d 312) gained his decisive victory over Maxentius, who, 
while attempting to escape over the Milvian Bridge, was 
pushed by the throng of fugitives into the Tiber, and per- 
ished, engulfed in the mud. The scene is depicted in the 
famous fresco of Giulio Romano, in the stanze of the 
Vatican. 

(On the opposite side of the river, Castel Giubeleo, on 
the site of the Etruscan Fidense, is a conspicuous object.) 

(The direct road from the Ponte Molle is the ancient 
Via Cassia^ which must be followed for some distance by 
those who make the interesting excursions to Veii, Galera, 
and Bracciano, each easily within the compass of a day's 
expedition. On the left of this road, three miles from 
Rome, is the fine sarcophagus of Publius Vibius Maximus 
and his wife Regina Maxima, popularly known as " Nero's 
Tomb.") 

Following the road to the left of the Ponte Molle, we 
turn up a steep incline to the deserted Villa Madama^ built 
by Giulio Romano, from designs of Raphael for Cardinal 
Giulio de' Medici, afterwards Clement VII. It derives its 
name from Margaret of Austria, daughter of Charles V , 
and wife, first of Alessandro de' Medici, and then of Ottavio 
Farnese, duke of Parma ; from this second marriage, it 
descended through EHsabetta Farnese, to the Bourbon 
kings of Naples. The neglected halls contain some 
fresco decorations by Giulio Romano and Giovanni da 
Udiiie. 

'* They consist of a series of beautiful little pictures, representing the 
sports of Satyrs and Loves ; Juno, attended by her peacocks ; Jupiter 
and Ganymede ; and various subjects of mythology and fable. The 
paintings in the portico have been of first-rate excellence ; and I cannot 
but regret, that designs so beautiful should not be engraved before their 
last traces disappear for ever. A deep fringe on one of the deserted 
chambers, representing angels, flowers, Caryatides, &c., by Giulio 

_ * Masses of reddish rock of volcanic tufa are still to be seen here, breaking through 
the soil of the Campagna. 



VILLA MADAMA. 647 

Romano ; and also a fine fresco on a ceiling, by Ciiovanni da Udine, of 
Phoebus driving his heavenly steeds, are in somewhat better presei-v- 
ation. 

" It was in the groves that surrounded Villa Madama, that the Pastor 
Fido of Guarini was represented for the first time before a brilliant circle 
of princes and nobles, such as these scenes will see no more, and Italy 
itself could not now produce." — Eaton's Rome. 

The frescoes and arabesques executed here by Giovanni 
da Udine were considered at the time as among the most 
successful of his works. Vasari says that in these he 
" wished to be supreme, and to excel himself." Cardinal 
de' Medici was so dehghted with them that he not only 
heaped benefits on all the relations of the painter, but 
rewarded him with a rich canonry, which he was allowed to 
transfer to his brother. 

One can scarcely doubt from the description of Martial 
that this villa occupies the site of that in which the poet 
came to visit his friend and namesake. 

'* Juli jugera pauca Martialis, 
Hortis Hesperidum beatiora, 
Longo Janiculi jugo recumbunt. 
Lati coilibus imminent recessus ; 
Et planus modico tumore vertex 
Coelo perfruitur sereniore : 
Et, curvas nebula tegente valles, 
Solus luce nitet peculiari : 
Puris leniter admoventur astris 
Celsse culmina delicata villse. 
Hinc septem dominos videre montes, 
Et totam licet aestimare Romam." 

The villa Madama is situated on one of the slopes of 
Mo7ite Mario., which is ascended by a winding carriage- 
road from near the Porta Angelica. This hill, in ancient 
times called Clivus Cinnae, was in the middle ages Monte 
Malo, and is thus spoken of by Dante (Paradiso, xv. 
109). Its name changed to Mario, through Mario Mellini, 
its possessor in the time of Sixtus V. Passing the two 
churches of Sta. Maria del Rosario and Sta. Croce di 
Monte Mario,* we reach a gate with an old pine-tree. 
This is the Villa Mellini (for which an order is supposed to 
be necessary, though a franc will usually cause the gates to 
fly open), which possesses a magnificent view over Rome, 
from its terraces, lined with ilexes and cypresses. 

• Built by Mario Mellini in the fifteenth century. 



64S WALKS IN ROME. 

"The Monte M.irio, like Cooper's Hill, is the highest, boldest, and 
most prominent part of the line ; it is about the height and steepness 
too of Cooper's Hill, and has the Tiber at the foot of it, like the Thames 
at Anchorwick. To keep up the resemblance, there is a sort of terrace 
at the top of the Monte Mario, planted with cypresses, and a villa, 
though dilapidated, crowns the summit, as well as at our old friend 
above Egham. Here Ave stood, on a most delicious evening, the ilex 
and the gum-cistus in great profusion about us, the slope below full of 
vines and olives, the cypresses above our heads, and before our eyes 
all that one has read of in Roman History — the course of the Tiber 
between the hills that bound it, coming down from Fidenae and receiving 
the Allia and the Anio ; beyond, the Apennines, the distant and higher 
summits still quite white with snow ; in front, the Alban Hills ; on the 
right, the Campagna to the sea ; and just beneath us the whole length 
of Rome, ancient and modern — St. Peter's and the Coliseum, rising as 
the i-epresentatives of each — the Pantheon, the Aventine, the Quirinal, 
all the well-known objects distinctly laid before us. One may safely say 
that the world cannot contain many views of such mingled beauty and 
interest as this." — Dr. Arnold. 

*'Les maisonsde campagne des grands seigneurs donnent I'idee de cette 
solitude, de cette indifference des possesseurs au milieu des plus admira- 
bles sejours du monde. On se promene dans ces immenses jardins, sans 
se douter qu'ils aient un maitre. L'herbe croit au milieu des allees ; et, 
dans ces memes allees abandonnees, les arbres sont tailles artistement, 
selon I'ancien goiit qui regnait en France ; singuliere bizarrerie que 
cette negligence du necessaire, et cette affectation de I'inutile ! " — Mad. 
de Stael. 

(Behind the Monte Mario, about four miles from Rome, 
is the church of ^. Oiiofrio in Campagna^ with a curious 
ossuary. ) 

Just outside the Porta Angelica was the vineyard in 
which Alexander VI. died. 

*' This is the manner in which Pope Alexander VI. came to his 
death. 

" The cardinal datary, Arian de Corneto, having received a gracious 
intimation that the pontiff, together with the Duke Valentines, designed 
to come and sup with him at his vineyard, and that his Holiness would 
bring the supper with him, the cardinal suspected that this determina- 
tion had been taken for the purpose of destroying his life by poison, to 
the end that the duke might have his riches and appointments, the 
rather as he knew that the pope had resolved to put him to death by 
some means, with a view to seizing his property as I have said, — which 
was very great. Considering of the means by which he might save 
himself, he could see but one hope of safety — he sent in good time to the 
pope's carver, with whom he had a certain intimacy, desiring that he 
would come to speak with him ; who, when he had come to the said 
cardinal, was taken by him into a secret place, where, they two being 
retired, the cardinal showed the carver a sum, prepared beforehand, of 
10,000 ducats, in gold, which the said cardinal pcrsuadx-'d the carver to 
accept as a gift and to keep for love of him,, and after many words, 



VIGNA ANGELICA. 649 

they were at length accepted, the cardinal offering, moreover, all the 
rest of his wealth at his command — for he was a very rich cardinal, 
for he said that he could not keep the said riches by any other means 
than through the said carver's aid, and declared to him, ' You know 
of a certainty what the nature of the pope is, and I know that he 
has resolved, with the Duke Valentinos, to procure my life by poison, 
through your hand,' — wherefore he Besought the carver to take pity 
on him, and to give him his life. And having said this, the carver 
declared to him the manner in which it was ordered that the poison 
should be given to him at the supper, but being moved to compassion 
he promised to preserve his life. Now the orders were that the carver 
should present three boxes of sweetmeats, in tablets or lozenges, after the 
supper, one to the pope, one to the said cardinal, and another to the duke, 
and in that for the cardinal there was poison : and thus being told, the 
said cardinal gave directions to the aforesaid carver in what manner he 
should serve them, so as to cause that the box of poisoned confect 
which was to be for the cardinal, should be placed before the pope, 
so that he might eat thereof, and so poison himself, and die. And 
the pope being come accordingly with the duke to supper on the day 
appointed, the cardinal threw himself at his feet, kissing them and 
embracing them closely ; then he entreated his Holiness with most 
affectionate words, saying, he would never rise from those feet until his 
Holiness had granted him a favour. Being questioned by the pontiff 
what this favour was, and requested to rise up, he would first have the 
grace he demanded, and the promise of his Holiness to grant it> Now 
after much persuasion, the pope remained sufficiently astonished, seeing 
the perseverance of the cardinal, and that he would not rise, and pro- 
mised to grant the favour. Then the cardinal rose up and said, ' Holy 
Father, it is not fitting that when the master comes to the house of his 
servant, the servant should eat with his master like an equal (confrezer 
parimente),' and therefore the grace he demanded was the just and 
honest one, that he, the servant, should wait at the table of his master ; 
and this favour the pope granted him. Then having come to supper, 
and the time for serving the confectionery having arrived, the carver 
put the poisoned sweetmeats into the box, according to the first order 
given to him by the pope, and the cardinal being well informed as to 
which box had no jwison, tasted of that one, and put the poisoned 
confect before the pope. Then his Holiness, trusting to his carver, and 
seeing the cardinal tasting, judged that no poison was there, and ate of 
it heartily ; while of the other, which the pope thought was poisoned, 
but which was not, the cardinal ate. Now at the hour accustomed, 
according to the quality of that poison, his Holiness began to feel its 
effect, and so died thereof; but the cardinal, who was yet much afraid, 
having physicked himself and vomited, took no harm and escaped, 
though not without difficulty." — Sanuto, iv., Translation in Rattke's 
Hist, of the Popes. 

The wine of the Vatican hill has had a bad reputa- 
tion even from classical times. " If you Uke vinegar," 
wrote Martial, "drink the wine of the Vatican!"* and 

* Martial, Ep. x. 45, 5. 



650 WALKS IN ROME. 

again, " To drink the wine of the Vatican is to drink 
poison." * 

(Here, also, is the entrance of the Val d' Inferno^ a 
pleasant winter walk, where, near the beginning of the 
Cork Woods, are some picturesque remains of an ancient 
nymphaeum. ) 

The Porta Angelica, built by Pius IV. \1559 — 1566), leads 
into the Borgo, beneath the walls of the Vatican. 

Those who return from hence to the English quarter in 
the evening, will realize the vividness of Miss Thackeray's 
description : — 

".They passed groups standing round their doorways ; a blacksmith 
hammering with great straight blows at a copper pot, shouting to a 
friend, a young baker, naked almost, except for -a great sheet flung over 
his shoulders, and leaning against the door of his shop. The horses 
tramp on. Listen to the flow of fountains gleaming white against tke 
dark marbles, — to the murmur of voices. An old lady, who has apparently 
hung all her wardrobe out of window, in petticoats and silk hankerchiefs, 
is looking out from beneath these banners at the passers in the streets. 
Little babies, tied up tight in swaddling-clothes, are being poised against 
their mother's hips ; a child is trying to raise the great knocker of some 
feudal-looking arch, hidden in the comer of the street. Then they cross 
the bridge, and see the last sun's rays flaming from the angel's sacred 
sword. Driving on through the tranquil streets, populous and thronged 
with citizens, they see brown-faced, bronze-headed Torsos in balconies 
and window-frames ; citizens sitting tranquilly, resting on the kerb- 
stones, with their feet in the gutters ; grand-looking women resting 
against their doorways. Sibyls out of the Sistine were sitting on the 
steps of the churches. In one stone archway sat the Fates spinning 
their web. There was a holy family by a lemonade-shop, and a whole 
heaven of little Coreggio angels pondering dark-eyed along the road. Thea 
comes a fountain falling into a marble basin, at either end of which two 
little girls are clinging and climbing. Here is a little lighted May-altar 
to the Virgin, which the children have put up under the shrine by the 
street-comer. They don't beg clamorously, but stand leaning against 
the wall, waiting for a chance miraculous baioch ? ''^— Bluebeard'' s Keys. 



CHAPTER XX. 
THE JANICULAN. 



Gate of Sto. Spirito — Church, Convent, and Garden of S. Onofrio — 
The Lungara — Palazzo Salviati and the Botanic-Garden — S. Gio- 

• Martial, Ep. vi. 93, 3, 



THE HILL OF JANUS. 651 

vanni alia Lungara — Palazzo Corsini — The Farnesinj —Porta Set- 
timiaija — S. Pietro in Montorio — Fontana Paolina — Villa Lante — 
Porta and Church of S. Pancrazio — Villa Doria-Pamfili — Chapel of 
St. Andrew's Head. 

THE Janiculan is a steep crest of hill which rises 
abruptly on the west bank of the Tiber, and breaks 
imperceptibly away on the other side into the Campagna 
towards Civita Vecchia. Its lower formation is a marine 
clay abounding in fossils, but its upper surface is formed of 
the yellow sand which gave it the ancient name of Mons 
Aureus, — still commemorated in Montorio — S. Pietro in 
Montorio. 

A tradition universally received in ancient times, and 
adopted by Virgil, derives the name of Janiculum from 
Janus, who was the sun-god, as Jana, or Diana, was the 
moon-goddess. On this hill Janus is believed to have 
founded a city, which is mentioned by Pliny under the 
name of Antinopolis. Ovid makes Janus speak for him- 
self as to his property : 

** Arx mea collis erat, quern cultrix nomine nostro 
Nuncupat haec setas, Janiculumque vocat." * 

Fons, the supposed son of Janus, is known to have had 
an altar here in very early times, t Janus Quirinus was a 
war-god, " the sun armed with a lance." Thus, in time of 
peace, the gates of this temple were closed, both because 
his worship was then unnecessary, and from an idea of pre- 
venting war from going forth. It was probably in this 
character that he was honoured on a site which the Romans 
looked upon as " the key of Etruria," while other nations 
naturally regarded it as " the key of Rome." 

Janus was represented as having a key in his hand. 

* Ille ten ens dextra baculum, clavemque sinistra." 

" Par un hasard singulier, Janus, qu'on representait une clef a la main, 
etait le dieu du Janicule, voisin du Vatican, ou est le tombeau de Saint 
Pierre, que Ton represente aussi tenant une clef. Janus, comme Saint 
Pierre, son futur voisin, etait le portier celeste." — Ampere, Hist. Rom. 
i. 229. 

When the first Sabine king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, 
"like the darlings of the gods in the golden age, fell 

* Fast, i. 246. t Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. 227. 

2 U 



652 WALKS IN ROME. 

asleep, full of days,"* he was buried upon the sacred hill of 
his own people, and the books of his sacred laws and ordi- 
nances were buried near him in a separate tomb.t In the 
sixth centur)^ of the republic, a monument was discovered 
on the Janiculan, which was believed to be that of Numa, 
and certain books were dug up near it which were destroyed 
by the senate in the fear that they might give a too free- 
thinking explanation of the Roman mythology. J 

Ancus Martins, the fourth king of Rome, connected the 
Janiculan with the rest of the city by building the Pons 
Sublicius, the first bridge over the Tiber ; and erected a 
citadel on the crest of the hill as a bulwark against Etruria, 
with which he w^as constantly at war. § Some escarpments, 
supposed to belong to the fortifications of Ancus, have 
lately been found behind the Fontana Paolina. It was 
from this same ridge that his Etruscan successor, Tarqui- 
nius Priscus^ coming from Tarquinii (Corneto), had his first 
view of the city over which he came to reign, and here the 
eagle, henceforth to be the emblem of Roman power, 
replaced upon his head the cap which it had snatched away 
as he was riding in his chariot. Hence, also, Lars Porsena, 
king of Etruria, looked upon Rome, when he came to the 
assistance of Tarquinius Superbus, and retired in fear of his 
life after he had seen specimens of Roman endurance, in 
Horatius Codes, who kept the falling bridge ; in Mutius, 
who burnt his hand in the charcoal; and in the hostage, 
Cloelia, who swam home across the Tiber, — all anecdotes 
connected with the Janiculan. 

After the time of the kings this hill appears less fre- 
quently in history. But it was here that the consul Octavius, 
the friend of Sylla, was murdered by the partisans of 
Marius, while seated in his curule chair, — near the foot of 
the hill Julius Caesar had his famous gardens, and on its 
summit the Emperor Galba was buried. The Christian 
associations of the hill will be noticed at the different 
points to which they belong. 

From the Borgo (Chap. XV.) the unfinished gate called 
Forta Sto. Spirito^ built by Antonio da San Gallo, leads 
into the Via Lungara, a street three-quarters of a mile long, 

• Niebuhr, i. 240. t Arnold, Hist. vol. i. 

X Ampere, Hist. Rom. i. 389. § Niebuhr, i. 353. 



6-. ONOFRJO. 653 

formed by Sixtus V., and occupying the whole length of the 
valley between the Tiber and the Janiculan. 

Immediately on the right, the steep "SaHta di S. Ono- 
frio " leads up the hillside to the Church of S. Onofrio, built 
in 1439 by Nicolo da Forca Palena, in honour of the Egyp- 
tian hermit, Honophrius, 

" St. Onofrius was a monk of Thebes, who retired to the desert, far 
from the sight of men, and dwelt there in a cave for sixty years, and 
during all that time never beheld one human being, or Uttered one word 
of his niother-tongue except in prayer. He was unclothed, except by 
some leaves twisted round his body, and his beard and hair had become 
like the face of a wild beast. In this state he was discovered by a holy 
man whose name was Paphnutius, who, seeing him crawling on the 
ground, knew not at first what live thing it might be." — ya?neson's 
Sacred Art. 

From the little platform in front of the convent is one 
of the loveliest views^ over the city. The church is ap- 
proached by a portico, decorated with glazed frescoes by 
£>ome?iichi?io. Those on either side of the door represent the 
saints of the leronomyte Order (the adjoining convent 
belongs to leronomytes), viz, : S. Jerome, Sta. Paula, St. 
Eustochius, S. Pietro Gambacorta of Pisa, St. Augustine the 
hermit, S. Nicolo di Forca Palena, S. Onofrio and the 
Blessed Benedict of Sicily, Philip of St. Agatha, Paul of 
Venice, Bartholomew of Cesarea, Mark of Manuta, Philip of 
Fulgaria, and John of Catalonia. Over the door is a 
Madonna and Child. In the side arcade are three scenes 
in the life of St. Jerome. i. Represents his baptism as a 
young man at Rome. 2. Refers to his vision of the Judg- 
ment (described in his letter to Eustochium), in which he 
heard the Judge of the World ask what he was, and he 
answered, " I am a Christian." But the Judge replied, 
" No, you lie, for you are a Ciceronian," and he was con- 
demned to be scourged, but continued to protest that he 
was a Christian between every lash, 3. Is a scene alluded 
to in another letter to Eustochium, in which Jerome says, 
" O how often when alone in the desert with the wild 
beasts and scorpions, half dead with fasting and penance, 
have I fancied myself a spectator of the sins of Rome, and 
of the dances of its young women." 

The church has a solemn and picturesque interior. It 
ends in a tribune richly adorned with frescoes, those of the 
upper part (the Coronation of the Virgin, and eight groups 



654 WALKS IN ROME, 

of saints and angels) being by Pinturicchio , those of the 
lower (the Virgin and Saints, Nativity, and Flight into 
Eg}^pt) by Baldassare Peruzzi. 

On the left of the entrance is the original monument of 
Tasso (with a portrait), erected after his death by Cardinal 
Bevilacqua. Greatly inferior in interest is a monument 
recently placed to his memory in the adjoining chapel, by 
subscription, the work of De Fabris. Near this is the 
grave of the poet, Alessandro Guidi, ob. 171 2. In the third 
chapel on the left is the grave of the learned Cardinal 
Mezzofanti, born at Bologna, 1774, died at Rome, 1849. 

The first chapel on the right, which is low and vaulted, 
with stumpy pillars, is covered with frescoes relating to S. 
Onofrio. 

The second chapel on the right, which is very richly 
decorated, contains a Madonna crowned by Angels, by 
Annibale Caracci. Beyond this is the fine tomb of Arch- 
bishop Sacchi, ob. 1502. The beautiful lunette, of the 
Madonna teaching the Holy Child to read, is by Pintu- 
ricchio. The tomb is inscribed : 

* ' Labor et gloria vita fuit, 
Mors requies." 

Ladies are never admitted to visit the convent, except on 
April 25th, the anniversary of the death of Tasso. It is 
approached by a cloister, decorated with frescoes from the 
life of S. Onofrio. 

*'S. Onofrio is represented as a meagre old man, with long hair and 
beard, grey and matted, a leafy branch twisted round his loins, a stick 
in his hand. The artist generally tries to make him look as haggard and 
inhuman as possible." — Mrs, Jainesott. 

In a passage on the first floor is a beautiful fresco of 
the Virgin and Child with the donor, by Leofiardo da 
Vinci. 

"To 15 13 belongs a Madonna, painted on the wall of the upper cor- 
ridor of the convent of S. Onofrio. It is on a gold ground : the action 
of the Madonna is beautiful, displaying the noblest form, and the 
expression of the countenance is peculiarly sweet ; but the Child, not- 
withstanding his graceful action, is somewhat hard and heavy, so as 
almost to warrant the conclusion that this picture belongs to an earlier 
period, which would suppose a previous visit to Rome." — Kuglcr. 

Torquato Tasso came to Rome in 1594, on the invita- 
tion of Clement VIIL, that he might be crowned on the 



S. ONOFRIO. 655 

Capitol, but as he arrived in the month of November, and 
the weather "Tvas then very bad, it was decided to postpone 
the ceremony till late in the following spring. This delay 
was a source of trouble to Tasso, who was in feeble health, 
and had a presentiment that his death was near. Before 
the time for his crowning arrived he had removed to S. 
Onofrio, saying to the monks who received him at the 
entrance, " My fathers, I have come to die amongst you ! " 
and he \\TOte to one of his friends, " I am come to begin 
my conversation in heaven in this elevated place, and in 
the society of these holy fathers." During the fourteen days 
of his illness, he became perfectly absorbed in the con- 
templation of divine subjects, and upon the last day of his 
life, when he received the papal absolution, exclaimed, 
" I believe that the crown which I looked for upon the 
Capitol is to be changed for a better crown in heaven." 
Throughout the last night a monk prayed by his side till 
the morning, when Tasso was heard to murmur, " In manus 
tuas, Domine," and then he died. The room in which he 
expired, April 25, 1595, contains his bust, crucifix, ink- 
stand, autograph, a mask taken from his face after death, and 
other relics. The archives of S. Onofrio have this entry : 

"Torquato Tasso, illustrious from his genius, died thus in our monas- 
tery of S. Onofrio. In April, 1595, he caused himself to be brought 
here that he might prepare for death with greater devotion and security, 
as he felt his end approaching. He was received courteously by our 
fathers, and conducted to chambers in the loggia, where everything was 
ready for him. Soon afterwards he became dangerously ill, and desired 
to confess and receive the most Holy Sacrament from the prior. Being 
asked to write his will, he said that he wished to be buried at S. 
Onofrio, and he left to the convent his crucifix and fifty scudi for alms, 
that so many masses might be said for his soul, in the manner that is read 
in the book of legacies in our archives. Pope Clement VHI. was re- 
quested for his benediction, which he gave amply for the remission of 
sins. In his last days he received extreme unction, and then, with the 
crucifix in his hand, contemplating and kissing the sacred image, with 
Christian contrition and devotion, being surrounded by our fathers, he 
gave up his spirit to the Creator, on April 25, 1595, between the eleventh 
and twelfth hours {i.e., between 7 and 8 A.M.), in the fiftieth year of his 
age. In the evening his body was interred with universal concourse 
in our church, near the steps of the high altar, the Cardinal Giulio 
Aldobrandini, under whose protection he had lived during the last 
years, being minded to erect to him, as soon as possible, a sumptuous 
sepulchre, M'hich, however, was never carried into effect ; but after the 
death of the latter, the Signor Cardinal Bevilacqua raised to his memory 
the monument which is seen on entering the church on the left side." 



6s6 WALKS TN ROME. 

Ladies are admitted to the beautiful garden of tl e con- 
vent on ringing at the first large gate on the left below the 
church. 

This lovely plot of ground, fresh with running streams, 
possesses a glorious view over the city, and the Campagna 
beyond S. Paolo. At the further extremity, near a pic- 
turesque group of cypresses, are remains of the oak planted 
by Tasso, the greater part of which was blo-\\Ti down in 1842. 
A young sapling is shooting up beside it. Beyond this is the 
little amphitheatre, overgro^\n with grass and flowers, where 
S. Filippo Neri used to teach children, and assemble them 
" for the half-dramatic musical perfonnances which were an 
original fonn of his oratorios. Here every 25th of April a 
musical entertainment of the Accademia is held in memory of 
Tasso, — his bust, crowned with laurel wreaths, and taken 
from the cast after death, being placed in the centre of the 
amphitheatre." * 

Retuming to the Lungara, on the left is a Lunatic Asylum, ^ 
founded by Pius IX., with a pompous inscription, and 
beyond it, a chain bridge to S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini. On 
the right is the handsome Palazzo Salviati, which formerly 
contained a fine collection of pictures, removed to the Bor- 
ghese Palace, when, upon the property falling into the hands 
of Prince Borghese, he sold the palace to the govern- 
ment, who now use it as a repository for the civil archives. 
The adjoining garden now belongs to the Sapienza, and 
has been turned into a Botanic Garden. The modernized 
church of S. Gwvan7ii alia Ltmgara dates from the time 
of Leo IV. (845 — 857), and is now attached to a reformatory. 
On the right is a large Convent of the Buon Pastore. 

We now reach, on the right, the magnificent Palazzo 
Corsini, built originally by the Riario family, from whom it 
was bought by Clement XII. in 1729, for his nephew Car- 
dinal Neri Corsini, for whom it was altered to its present 
form by Fuga. 

This palace was in turn the resort of Caterina Sforza, the 
brave duchess of Imola ; of the learned Poet Cardinal di 
S. Giorgio ; of Michael Angelo, who remained here more 
than a year on a visit to the cardinal, " who," says Vasari, 
*' being of small understanding in art, gave him no commis- 
sion " ; and of Erasmus, who always remembered the plea- 

* HemaAS. 



PALAZZO CORSIl L C57 

sant conversations (confabulation es melliflucT) of the " Riario 
Palace," as it was then called. In the seventeenth century 
the palace became the residence of Queen Christina of Swe- 
den, who died here on April 19, 1689, in a room which is 
distinguished by two columns of painted wood. 

*' With her residence in Rome, the ha'hits of Christina became more 
tranquil and better regulated. She obtained some mastery over her- 
self, suffered certain considerations of what was due to others to prevail, 
and consented to acknowledge the necessities incident to the peculiari- 
ties of her chosen residence. She took a constantly increasing part in 
the splendour, the life, and the business of the Curia, becoming indeed 
eventually altogether identified with its interests. The collections she 
had brought with her from Sweden, she now enlarged by so liberal an 
expenditure, and with so much taste, judgment, and success, that she 
surpassed even the native families, and elevated the pursuit from a mere 
gratification oi curiosity, to a higher and more significant importance 
both for learning and art. Men such as Spanheim and Havercamp 
thought the illustration of her coins and medals an object not unworthy 
of their labours, and Sante Bartolo devoted his practised hand to her 
cameos. The Coreggios of Christina's collection have always been the 
richest ornament of eveiy gallery into which the changes of time have 
carried them. The MSS. of her choice have contributed in no small 
degree to maintain the reputation of the Vatican library, into which they 
were subsequently incorporated. Acquisitions and possessions of this 
kind filled up the hours of her daily life, with an enjoyment that was at 
least harmless. She also took interest and an active part in scientific 
pursuits ; and it is much to her credit that she received the poor exiled 
Borelli, who was compelled to resort in his old age to teaching as a 
means of subsistence. The queen supported him with her utmost power, 
and caused his I'enowned and still unsurpassed work, on the mechanics 
of animal motion, by which physiological science has been so import- 
antly influenced and advanced, to be printed at her own cost. Nay, I 
think we may even venture to affirm, that she herself, when her cha- 
racter and intellect had been improved and matured, exerted a power- 
fully efficient and enduring influence on the period, more particularly 
on Italian literature. In the year 1680, she founded an academy in her 
own residence for the discussion of literary and political subjects ; and 
the first rule of this institution was, that its members should carefully 
abstain from the turgid style, overloaded with false ornament, which 
prevailed at the time, and be guided only by sound sense and the models 
of the Augustan and Medicean ages. From the queen's academy pro- 
ceeded such men as Alessandro Guidi, who had previously been addicted 
to the style then used, but after sometime passed in the society of Chris- 
tina, he not only resolved to abandon it, but even formed a league with 
some of his friends for the purpose of labouring to abolish it altogether. 
The Arcadia, an academy to which the merit of completing this good 
w^ork is attributed, arose out of the society which assembled around the 
Swedish queen. On the whole, it must needs be admitted, that in the 
midst of the various influences pressing around her, Christina preserved 
a noble independence of mind. To the necessity for evincing that os» 



653 IVALIvS IX ROME. 

tentatious piety usually expected from converts, or which they impose 
on themselves, she would by no means subject herself. Entirely Catholic 
as she was, and though continually repeating her conviction of the 
pope's infallibility, and of the necessity for believing all doctrines en- 
joined either by himself or the Church, she had nevertheless an extreme 
detestation of bigots, and utterly abhorred the direction of father con- 
fessors, who were at that time the exclusive rulers of all social and 
domestic life. She would not be prevented from enjoying the amuse- 
ments of the carnival, concerts, dramatic entertainments, or whatever 
else might be offered by the habits of life at Rome ; above all, she 
refused to be withheld from the internal movement of an intellectual 
and animated society. She acknowledged a love of satires, and took 
pleasure in Pasquin. We find her constantly mingled in the intrigues 
of the court, the dissensions of the papal houses, and the factions of the 
cardinals. . . . She attached herself to the mode of life presented 
to her with a passionate love, and even thought it impossible to live 
if she did not breathe the atmosphere of Rome." — Rotkes Hist, of 
the Popes. 

In 1797 this palace was used as the French embassy, and 
on the 28th of December was the scene of a terrible skir- 
mish, when Joseph Buonaparte, then ambassador, attempted 
to interfere between the French democratic party and the 
papal dragoons, and when young General Duphot, who was 
about to be married to Buonaparte's sister-in-law, was shot 
by his side in a balcony. These events, after which Joseph 
Buonaparte immediately demanded his passports and de- 
parted, were among the chief causes which led to the invasion 
of Rome by Berthier, and the imprisonment of Pius VII.* 

The collections now in the palace have all been formed 
since the death of Queen Christina. The Picture Gallery is 
open to the public from nine to twelve, every day except 
Sundays and holidays. 

The following criticism, applicable to all the private 
galleries in Rome, is perhaps especially so to this : 

"You may generally form a tolerably correct conjecture of what a 
gallery will contain, as to subject, before you enter it, — a certain quan- 
tity of Landscapes, a great many Holy Families, a few Crucifixions, two 
or three Pietas, a reasonable proportion of St. Jeromes, a mixture of 
other Saints and Martyrdoms, and a large assortment of Madonnas and 
Magdalenes, make up the principal part of all the collections in Rome ; 
which are generally comprised of quite as many bad as good paintings." 
— Eaton' s Rome. 

The 1st room is chiefly occupied by pretty but unimportant land- 
scapes by Orizzonti and VanvitelU, and figure j)ieces by lx)catelli. 
We may notice (the best j^ctures being marked with an asterisk) : 

* See Thiers' History of the French Revolution. 



PALAZZO CORSINI. 659 

\5t Room, — 

24, 26. CanalettL 
2nd Room, — 

12, Madonna and Child in glory : Elh. SiranL 
II, 27. Fruit: Mario di Fiori. 

15. Landscape : G. Poussin. 

17, 19. Landscapes with Cattle : Berghem. 

20. Pieta : Lod. Caracci. 

41. S. Andrea Corsini : Fr. Gessi. 

^rd Room. — 

I. EcceHomo: Guercino* 

9, Madonna and Child : A. del Sarto, 

13. Holy Family: Barocci. 

16. 20. Rock Scenes : Salvator Rosa, 

17. Madonna and Child : Caravaggio. 
23. Sunset : Both* 

26. Holy Family : Fra Bartolomeo. 

43. Two Martyrdoms : Carlo Saraceni. 

44. Julius H. : after Raphael, 

The portrait of Julius H. (della Rovere) is a replic: or copy 
of that at the Pitti Palace. There are other duplicates in 
the Borghese Gallery, at the National Gallery in England, 
and at Leigh Court in Somersetshire. Julius IL ob. 15 13. 

49. St. Appollonia : Carlo Dolce, 

50. Philip n. of Spain : Titian. 
52. Vanity : Carlo Saraceni.^ 
88. Ecce Homo : Carlo Dolce. 

^th Room. — 

1, Clement XH. (Lorenzo Corsini, 1730 — 40) : Benedetto LuH» 
4. Cupid asleep : Guido Rent. 

II. Daughter of Herodias : Guido Rent,* 

16. Madonna : Guido Rent. 

22. Christ and the Magdalen : Barocci, 

27. Two Heads : Lod. Caracci. 

28. St. Jerome : Titian. 

40. Faustina Maratta — his daughter : Carlo Maratta. 

41. Fornarina \_ Giiilio Romano, after Raphael, — replica of the picture 

at Florence. 

42. Old Man : Gtiido. 

44. A Hare : Albert Durer.* 
55. Death of Adonis : Spagnoletto, 
In this room is an ancient marble chair, found near the Lateran — and 
on a table " the Corsini Vase," in silver, with reliefs representing the 
judgment of Areopagus upon the matricide of Orestes. 

^th Room. — (In which Christina died, widi a ceiling by 
the Zticca?'i.) 

2. Holy Family: Pienno del Vaga, 



66o WALKS IN ROME, 

12. St. Agiies: Carlo Dolce * 

14. Madonna reading : Sassoferrato. 

20. Ulysses and Polyphemus: LanfrancOm 

23. Madonna and Child : Albaiii. 

26, Madonna and Cn:iild : Sassoferrato. 

37. Addolorata : Giiido Rent. 

38. Ecce Homo : Giiido Rem. 

39. St. John : Gnido Rent. 

6th Room. — 

19. Portrait : Holbein. 

20. Mgr. Ghiberti : Titian. 

21. Children of Charles V. : Titian.* 

22. Old Woman : Rembrandt.* 

23. Male Portrait : Giorgione. 

31. Caterina Bora, Wife of Luther : Holbein.* 

32. Male Portrait : Vandyke. 

34. Nativity of the Virgin. Miniature from Durer. 

40. Cardinal Divitius de Bibbiena : Bronzino. 

47, Portrait of Himself : A'«(5c';/j-.* 

48. A Doge of Venice : Tintoret, 

54. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese : Titian.* 
68. Cardinal Neri Corsini : Baciecio. 

1th Room. — 

I. Madonna and Child : Murillo.* 

13. Landscape : G. Poussin. 

15. St. Sebastian: Rtcbens. 

18. Christ bearing the Cross : Garofalo. 

21. Christ among the Doctors: Ltcca Giordano. 

22. Descent of the Holy Spirit : Fra Angelico. 

23. Last Judgment : Fra Angelico. 

24. Ascension : F^-a Angelico. 

** A Last Judgment by Angelico da Fiesole, with wings containing 
the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, is in the Corsini 
Gallery. Here we perceive a great richness of expression and beauty of 
drapery ; the rapture of the blessed is told, chiefly by their embraces 
and by their attitudes of prayer and praise. It is a remarkable feature, 
and one indicative of the master, that the ranks of the condemnetl ar* 
entirely filled by monks." — Kiigler. 

26. Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew : Lod. Caracci. 

30. Woman taken in Adultery : Titian. ■^ 

35. Gonfaloniere of the Church : Donienichino. 

2>th Room. — 

8. Christ before Pilate : Vandyke. 

12. St. George : Ercolc Grandi. 

13. Contemplation : Gnido Reni. 
15. Landscape : G. Poussin. 

17. Judith and Head of Plolofernes : CJrard de la Nuit. 
24. St. Jerome: Giiercino. 



PALAZZO CORSINI. 66 1 

25. St. Jerome : Spagnoletto. 

4.3. Mosaic portrait of Clement XII. and his nephew Cardinal 

Neri Corsini. 
In this room are two modem family busts with touching inscrip- 
tions. 
Cabinet : 

26, Madonna and Child : Spagna* 

gth Room. — 

2. Village Interior : Tenters. 

9. Innocent X. : Velasquez (a replica of the Doria portrait). 
26. Female Portrait : Brcnzino. 
28, 29. Battle-pieces : Salvator Rosa. 
30. Two Heads : Giorgione. 
40. Madonna Addolorata : Cignani. 
49. Madonna and Child : Gherardesco da Siena. 

One of the gems of the collection, a highly finished 
Madonna and Child of Carlo Dolce, is usually shown in a 
glass case in the first room. 

The Corsini Library (open every day except Wednesdays) 
contains a magnificent collection of MSS. and engravings, 
founded by Cardinal Neri Corsini. It has also some beau- 
tiful original drawings by the old masters. Behind the 
palace, on the slope of the Janiculan, are large and beautiful 
Garde?ts adorned with fountains, cypresses, and some grand 
old plane-trees. There is a fine view from the Casino on 
the summit of the hill. 

" A magnificent porter in cocked hat and grand liveiy conducted the 
visitors across the quadrangle, unlocked the ponderous iron gates of the 
gardens, and let them through, leaving them to their own devices, and 
closing and locking the gates with a crash. They now stood in a wide 
avenue of ilex, whose gloomy boughs, interlacing overhead, effectually 
excluded the sunlight ; nearly a quarter of a mile further on, the ilexes 
were replaced by box and bay trees, beneath which the sun and shade 
divided the path between them, trembling and flickenng on the ground 
and invading each other's dominions with every breath of wind. The 
strangers heard the splash of fountains as they walked onwards by banks 
precipitous as a hill-side, and covered with Avild rank herbage and tall 
trees. Stooping to gather a flower, they almost started, as looking up, 
they saw, rising against a sky fabulously blue, the imfamiliar green ilex 
and dark cypress spire." — Madeinoiselle Mori. 

Opposite the Corsini Palace is the beautiful villa of the 
Far?iesina (open on Sundays from 10 to 3), built in 1506 
by Baldassare Peruzzi for the famous banker Agostino Chigi, 
who here gave his sumptuous and extravagant entertainments 
to Leo X. and his court — banquets at which three fish cost 
as much as 230 crowns, and after which the plate that had 



663 WALKS IN ROME. 

been used, was all thrown into the Tiber.* This same 
Agostino Chigi was one of the greatest of art patrons, and 
has handed down to us not only the decorations of the Far- 
nesina, but the Sibyls of Sta. Maria della Pace, which he 
also ordered from Raphael. 

*' Le jour ou Leon X. alia prendre possession de la basilique de 
Latran, Fopulent Chigi se distingua. Le theatre qui s'elevait devant 
son palais etait rempli des envoyes de tous les peuples, blancs, cuivres, 
Cc noirs ; au milieu d'eux on distinguait les images de Venus, de Mars, 
de Minerve, allusion singuliere aux trois pontirtcats d' Alexander VL, 
de Jules IL, et de Leon X. Venus a eu son temps: disait I'inscription ; 
Mars a eu le sien; cest aujourd' hui le regne de Minej-ue. Antoine de 
San-Marino, qui demeurait pres de Chigi, repondit aussitot en pla9ant 
sur sa boutique la statue isolee de Venus, avec ce peu de mots : Mars a 
regne, Minerve regne, Venus regnera toujours." — Gournerie, Rome 
Chretmuie, ii. 109. 

The Farnesina contains some of the most beautiful existing 
frescoes of Raphael and his school. The principal hall was 
once open, but has now been closed in to preserve the 
paintings. Its ceiling was designed by Raphael (15 18 — 20), 
and painted by Giidio Roinano and Francesco Pomi, with 
twelve scenes from the story of Psyche as narrated by 
Apuleius : 

A king had three daughters. The youngest was named Psyche, and 
was more lovely than the sunshine. Venus, the queen of beauty, was 
herself jealous of her, and bade her son Cupid to destroy her charms 
by inspiring her with an unworthy love ( i ). But Cupid, when he behelil 
Psyche, loved her himself, showed her to the Graces (2), and carried 
her off. He only visited her in the darkness of night, and bade her 
always to repress her curiosity as to his appearance. But while Cupid 
was sleeping. Psyche lighted a lamp, and looked upon him, — and a 
drop of the hot oil fell upon him and he awoke. Then he left her 
alone in grief and solitude. Venus in the mean time learnt that Cupid 
was faithless to her, and imprisoned him, and sought assistance from 
Juno and Ceres that she might find Psyche, but they refused to aid her 
(3). Then she drove to seek Jupiter in her chariot drawn by doves (4), 
and implored him to send Mercury to her assistance (5). Jupiter listened 
to her prayer, and Mercury was sent forth to seek for Psyche (6). Venus 
then showed her spite against Psyche, and imposed harsh tasks upon her 
which she was nevertheless enabled to perform. At length she was 
ordered to bring a casket from the infernal regions (7), and even this, to 
the amazement of Venus, she succeeded in effecting (8). Cupid, escaped 
from captivity, then implored Jupiter to restore Psyche to him. Jupiter 
embraced him (9), and bade Mercury summon the gods to a council on 
the subject (see the ceiling on the right). Psyche was then brought to 

• It has been supposed that the beautiful silver vase which is shown in the Corsini 
Palace, and which was picked up in the Tiber, belonged to this plate. 



THE FARNESINA. 663 

Olympus (10), and became immorta., and the gods celebrated her nup- 
tial banquet (ceiling painting on left). 

*' On the flat of the ceiling are two large compositions, with numerous 
figures, — the Judgment of the Gods, who decide the dispute between 
Venus and Cupid, and the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche in the 
festal assembly of the gods. In the lunettes of the ceiling are amormi, 
with the attributes of those gods who have done homage to the power 
of Love. In the triangular compartments between the lunettes are dif- 
ferent groups, illustrative of the incidents in the fable. They are of 
great beauty, and are examples of the most tasteful disposition in a given 
space. The picture of the three Graces, that in which Cupid stands in 
an imploring attitude before Jupiter ; a third, where Psyche is borne 
aM'ay by Loves, are extremely graceful. Peevish critics have designated 
these representations as common and sensual, but the noble spirit visible 
in all Raphael's works prevails also in these : religious feeling could 
naturally find no place in them ; but they are conceived in a spirit of 
the purest artlessness, always a proof of true moral feeling, and to which 
a narrow taste alone could object. In the execution, indeed, we recog- 
nise little of Raphael's fine feeling ; the greatest part is by his scholars, 
after his cartoons, especially by G. Romano. The nearest of the three 
Graces, in the group before alluded to, appears to be by Raphael's own 
hand . " — Kugler. 

The paintings were injuriously retouched by Carlo Ma- 
ratta. The garlands round them are by Giovatmi da Udine. 

The second room contains the beautiful fresco of Galatea 
floating in a shell drawn by dolphins, by Raphael himself. 

" Raphael not only designed, but executed this fresco ; and faded as 
is its colouring, the mind must be dead to the highest beauties of paint- 
ing, that can contemplate it without admiration. The spirit and beauty 
of the composition, the pure and perfect design, the flowing outline, 
the soft and graceful contours, and the sentiment and sweetness of the 
expression, all remain unchanged ; for time, till it totally obliterates, 
has no power to injure them. . . The figures of the attendant 
Nereid, and of the triumphant Triton who embraces her, are beautiful 
beyond description." — Eatoii's Rome. 

" The fresco of Galatea was painted in 1514. The greater part of 
this is Raphael's own work, and the execution is consequently much 
superior to that of the others. It represents the goddess of the sea borne 
over the waves in her shell ; tritons and sea-nymphs sport joyously 
around her ; amoritii, discharging their arrows, appear in the air like 
an angel-glory. The utmost sweetness, the most ardent sense of 
IDleasure, breathe from this work ; everything lives, feels, vibrates with 
enjoyment. " — Kugler. 

The frescoes of the ceiling, representing Diana in her Car, 
and the story of Medusa, are by Baldassare Peruzzi; the 
lunettes are by Sebastian del Piombo and Daniele da Volterra. 
Michael Angelo came one day to visit the latter, and not 
finding him at his work, left the colossal head, which re- 
mains in a lunette of the left wall, as a sign of his visit. 



664 WALKS LV ROME. 

In the upper story are two rooms ; the first, adorned with 
a frieze of subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses, contains 
large architectural paintings by Baldassai'e Pernzzi ; the 
second has the Marriage of Alexander and Roxana, and 
the family of Darius in the presence of Alexander, by 
Sodoma. 

The Porta Seitimiana at the end of the Lungara preserves 
in its name a recollection of the gardens of Septimius 
Severus, which existed in this quarter. From hence the 
Via delle Fornaci ascends the hill, and leads to the broad 
new carriage-road, formed in 1867 under the superintendence 
of the Cav. Trochi. A Yia-Crucis with a staircase will con- 
duct the pedestrian by a shorter way to the platform on 
the hill-top. 

The succession of beggars who infest this hill and stretch 
out their maimed limbs or kiss their hands to the passers-by 
will call to mind the lines of Juvenal : 

"Caecus adulator, dirusque a ponte satelles, 
Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes, 
Blandaque devexae jactaret basia rhedse." 

Sat. jv. 116. 

Tlie CJuDxh of S. Pietro hi Montorio was built by Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella of Spain, from designs of Baccio Pintelli, 
on the site of an oratory founded by Constantine upon the 
supposed spot of St. Peter's crucifixion. 

The first chapel on the right belongs to the Barberini, and 
contains pictures by Sebastian del^ Piojnbo, (painted in oil 
upon stone, a process which has caused them to be much 
blackened by time,) from drawings of Michael Ajige/o. The 
central picture represents the Scourging of Christ, a subject 
of which Sebastian was especially fond, as it gave the oppor- 
tunity of displaying his great anatomical power. On the left 
is St. Peter, on the right St. Francis, — on the ceiling is the 
Transfiguration, — outside the arch are a Prophet and a Sibyl. 
The second chapel on the right has paintings by pupils of 
Perugino ; the fifth contains St. Paul healed by Ananias, by 
Vasari. 

The fourth chapel on the right is of some interest in the 
history of art. Julius III. had it greatly at heart to build 
and beautify this chapel as a memorial to his fiimily, to 
contain the tombs of his uncle Cardinal Antonio di Monti, and 
of labiano, who first founded the splendours of his house. 



S. riETRO IN MONTORIO. 665 

The work was entrusted to Michael Angelo and Vasari, who 
were at that time on terms of intimate friendship. They 
disputed about their subordinates. Vasari wished to employ 
Simone Mosca for the ornaments, and Raffaello da Monta- 
lupo for the statues ; Michael Angelo objected to having 
any ornamental work at all, saying that where there were to 
be marble figures, there ought to be nothing else, and he 
would have nothing to do with Montalupo because his 
figures for the tomb of Julius II. had turned out so ill. 
When the chapel was finished Michael Angelo confessed 
himself in the wrong for not having allowed more ornament. 
The statues were entrusted to Bartolomeo Ammanati. 

The first chapel on the left has St. Francis receiving the 
stigmata attributed to Giova?i7ii de Vecchi. 

" A barber of the Cardinal S. Giorgio was an artist, who painted very 
well in tempera, but had no idea of design. He made friends with 
Michael-Angelo, who made him a cartoon of a St. Francis receiving the 
stigmata, which the barber carefully carried out in colour, and his pic- 
ture is now placed in the first chapel on the left of the entrance of S. 
Pietro in Montorio." — Vasa?-!, vi. 

The third chapel on the left contains a Virgin and Child 
with St. Anne, of the school of Perugino ; the fourth, a fine 
Entombment, by an unknown hand ; the fifth, the Baptism of 
Christ, said to be by Daniele da Voltei'ra. 

The Transfiguration of Raphael was painted for this 
church, and remained here till the French invasion. When 
it was returned from the Louvre it was kept at the Vatican. 
Had it been restored to this church, it would have been 
destroyed in the siege of 1849, when the tribune and bell- 
tower Avere thrown down. Here, in front of the high altar, 
the unhappy Beatrice Cenci was buried without any monu- 
ment. 

Irish travellers may be interested in the gravestones in 
the nave, of Hugh O'Neil of Tyrone, Baron Dungannon, 
and O'Donnell of Tyrconnell (1608). Near the door is the 
fine tomb, with the beautiful sleeping figure of Julian, Arch- 
bishop of Ragusa, ob. 15 10, inscribed "Bonis et Mors et 
Vita dulcis est." An inscription below the steps in front of 
the church commemorates the translation of a miraculous 
image of the Virgin hither in 17 14. 

In the cloister is the Tefnpietto, a small domed building 
resting on sixteen Doric columns, built by Bramante in 



666 WALKS IN ROME. 

1502, on the spot where St. Peter's cross is said to have 
stood. A few grains of the sacred sand from the hole in the 
centre of the chapel are given to visitors by the monks as a 
relic. 

'*St. Peter, when he was come to the place of execution, requested of 
the officei-s that he might be cmcified with his head downwards, alleging 
that he was not worthy to suffer in the same manner his divine Master 
had died before him. He had preached the cross of Christ, had borne 
it in his heart, and its marks in his body, by sufferings and mortification, 
and he had the happiness to end his life on the cross. The Lord was 
pleased not only that he should die for his love, but in the same manner 
himself had died for us, by expiring on the cross, which was the throne 
of his love. Only the apostle's humility made a difference, in desiring 
to be crucified with his head downward. His master looked toward 
heaven, which by his death he opened to men ; but he judged that a 
sinner formed from dust, and going to return to dust, ought rather in 
confusion to look on the earth, as unworthy to raise his eyes to heaven. 
St. Ambrose, St. Austin, and St. Prudentius ascribe this his petition 
partly to his humility, and partly to his desire of suffering more for 
Christ. Seneca mentions that the Romans sometimes crucified men with 
their heads downward ; and Eusebius testifies that several martyrs were 
put to that cruel death. Accordingly, the executioners easily granted 
the apostle his extraordinary request. St. Chrysostom, St. Austin, and 
St. Austerius say that he was nailed to the cross ; Tertullian mentions 
that he was tied with cords. He was probably both nailed and bound 
with ropes. " — Albau Butler. 

The view from the front of the church is almost unrivalled. 

Behind it is the famous Fontana Paoiina, whose name, by a 
curious coincidence, combines those of its architect, Fontana, 
and its originator, Paul V. It was erected in 161 r, and is 
supplied with water from the Lake of Bracciano, by the aque- 
duct of the Aqua Trajana, thirty-five miles in length. The 
red granite columns, which divide the fountain, were brought 
from the temple of Minerva in the Forum Transitorium. 

**The pleasant, natural sound of falling water, not unlike that of a 
distant cascade in the forest, may be heard in many of the Roman streets 
and piazzas, when the tumult of the city is hushed ; for consuls, empe- 
rors, and popes, the great men of every age, have foimd no better way 
of immortalising their memories, than by the shifting, indestructible, 
ever new, yet unchanging, up-gush and down-fall of water. They have 
written their names in that unstable element, and proved it a move 
durable record than brass or marble"— -//d-zt'///^/-;;^. 

" II n'y a rien encore, dans quelque etat que ce soit, k opposcr aux 
magnifiques fontaines qu'on voit a Rome dans les places et les carrefours, 
ni a 1 abondance des eaux qui ne cessent jamais de couler ; magnificence 
d'autant plus louable que I'utilite publique y est jointe." — Diidos. 

A little beyond this fountain is the modern Porta S. Pan- 



S. PANCRAZIO. G67 

crazio^ near the site of the ancient Porta Aurelia, built by- 
Pius IX. in 1857, to replace a gate destroyed by the French 
under Oudinot in 1849. Many buildings outside the gate, 
■injured at the same time, still remain in ruin. 

The lane on the right, inside the gate, leads to the Villa 
La?ite, built in 1524 by Giulio Romano, for Bartolomeo da 
Pescia, secretary of Clement VII. It still contains some 
frescoes of Giulio Romano, though they are only lately un- 
covered, as the house was used, until the last two years, as 
a succursale to the Convent of the Sacre Coeur at the 
Trinitk de' Monti. 

Not far outside the gate are the Church and Convent of S. 
Pancrazio, founded in the sixth century by Pope Symmachus, 
but modernized in 1609 by Cardinal Torres. Here Cres- 
cenzio Nomentano, the famous consul of Rome in the tenth 
century, is buried ; here Narses, after the defeat of Totila, 
was met by the pope and cardinals, and conducted in 
triumph to St. Peter^s to return thanks for his victory ; here, 
also, Peter II. of Arragon was crowned by Innocent III., 
and Louis of Naples was received by John XII. 

A flight of steps leads from the church to the Catacomb of 
Cakpodius, where many of the early popes and martyrs 
were buried. It has no especial characteristic to make 
it worth visiting. Another flight of steps leads to the spot 
where S. Pancrazio was martyred. His body rests with 
that of St. Victor beneath the altar. A parish church in 
London is dedicated to St. Pancras, in whose name kings 
of France used to confirm their treaties. 

•' In the persecution under Diocletian, this young saint, who was 
only fourteen years of age, offered himself voluntarily as a martyr, 
defending boldly before the emperor the cause of the Christians. He 
■was therefore beheaded by the sword, and his body was honourably 
buried by Christian women. His church, near the gate of St. Pancrazio, 
has existed since the year 500. St. Pancras was in the middle ages 
regarded as the protector against false oaths, and the avenger of perjury. 
It was believed that those who swore falsely by St. Pancras were imme- 
diately and visibly punished ; hence his popularity." — Jameson^s Sacred 
Art. 

(Turning to the left from the gate, on the side of the hill 
between this and the Porta Portese, is the Catacomb of S. 
Fojizia?io. 

*' Here is the only perfect specimen still extant of a primitive subter- 
ranean baptistery. A small stream of water runs through this cemetery, 

2 X 



668 IVALKS IX ROME. 

and at this one place the channel has been deepened so as to form a 
kind of reservoir, in which a certain quantity of water is retained. We 
descend into it by a flight of steps, and the depth of water ,t contains 
varies with the height of the Tiber. When that river is swollen so as to 
block up the exit by which this stream usually empties itself, the waters 
are sometimes so dammed back as to inundate the adjacent galleries of 
the catacomb ; at other times there are not above three or four feet of 
water. At the back of the font, and springing out of the water, is 
painted a beautiful Latin cross, from whose sides leaves and flowers are 
budding forth, and on the two arms rest ten candlesticks, with the 
letters Alpha and Omega suspended by a little chain below them. On 
the front of the arch over the font is the Baptism of our Lord in the 
river Jordan by St. John, whilst St. Abdon, St. Sennen, St. Miles, and 
other saints of the Oriental church occupy the sides. These paintings 
are all of late date, perhaps of the seventh or eighth century: but 
there is no reason to doubt but that the baptistery had been so used 
from the earliest times. We have distinct evidence in the Acts of the 
Martyrs that the sacrament was not unfrequently administered in the 
cemeteries." — The Roman Catacombs — Northcote, 

In this catacomb is an early Portrait of Christ, much 
resembling that at SS. Nereo ed Achilleo. 

" The figure is, however, draped, and the whole work has certain 
peculiarities which appear to mark a later period of art. Both these 
portraits agree, if not strictly, yet in general features, Avith the descrip- 
tion in Lentulus's letter (to the Roman senate), and portraits and 
descriptions together serve to prove that the earliest Christian deline- 
ators of the person of the Saviour followed no arbitrary conception of 
their own, but were guided rather by a particular traditional type, 
differing materially from the Grecian ideal, and which they transmitted 
in a great measure to future ages." — Kugler, i. i6. 

In this vicinity are the Catacombs of SS. Abdon and 
Sennen, of St. Julius, and of Sta. Generosa.) 

Opposite the Porta S. Pancrazio is the entrance of the 
beautiful Villa Pamfili Doria (open to pedestrians and to 
two-horse carriages after 1 2 o'clock on Mondays and Fridays), 
called by the Italians " Belrespiro." The Casino con- 
tains a few (not first-rate) ancient statues, and some 
views of Venice in the seventeenth century by Heintius. 
The garden, for which especial permission must be obtained, 
is full of beautiful azaleas and camellias. 

From the ilex-fringed terrace in front of the casino is one 
of the best views of St. Peter'.s, which is here seen without 
the town, — backed by the Campagna, the Sabine Moun- 
tains, and the blue peak of Soracte. The road to the left 
leads through pine-shaded lawns and woods, and by some 
modern ruins, to the lake, above which is a graceful fountain. 



VILLA PAMFILI DORIA. 66^ 

A small temple raised in 185 1 commemorates the French 
who fell here during the siege of Rome in 1849. The 
word " Mary " in large letters of clipped box on the other 
side of the grounds is a memorial of the late beloved Prin- 
cess Doria (Lady Mary Talbot). Not far from this is a 
columbarium. 

The site of the Villa Doria was once occupied by the 
gardens of Galba, and here the murdered emperor is believed 
to have been buried. 

*' Un certain Argius, autrefois esclave de Galba, ramassa son corps, 
qui avait subi mille outrages, et alia lui creuser une humble sepulture 
dans les jardins de son ancien maitre; mais il fallut retrouver la tete: 
elle avait ete mutilee et promenee par les goajats de I'armee. Enfin 
Argius la trouva le lendemain, et la reunit au corps deja brule. Les 
jardins de Galba etaient sur le Janicule, pres de la voie Aurelienne, et 
on croit que le lieu qui vit le dernier denoument de cette affreuse tra- 
gedie est celui qu'occupe aujourd'hui la plus charmante promenade de 
Rome, la ou inclinent avec tant de grace sur les pentes semees d'ane- 
mones et oii dessinent si delicatement sur I'azur du ciel et des montagnes 
leurs parasols elegants les pins de la villa Pamphili." — Ampere, Emp, 
ii. 80. 

The foundation of the Villa Pamfili Doria is due to the 
wealth extorted by Olympia Maldacchini during the reign of 
her brother-in-law, Innocent X. 

" Innocent X. fut, pour ainsi dire, contraint de fonder la maison 
Pamphili. Les casuistes et les jurisconsultes leverent ses scrupules, car il 
en avait. lis lui prouverent que le pape etait en droit d'economiser sur 
les revenus du saint-siege pour assurer I'avenir de sa famille. lis fixerent, 
avec une moderation qui nous fait dresser les cheveux sur la tete, le 
chiffre des liberalites permises a chaque pape. Suivant eux, le souverain 
pontife pouvait, sans abuser, etablir un majorat de quatre mille francs 
de rente nette, fonder une seconde geniture en faveur de quelque parent 
moins avantage, et donner neuf cent mille francs de dot a chacune de 
ses nieces. Le general des jesuites, R. B. Vitelleschi, approuva cette 
decision. La-dessus, Innocent X. se mit a fonder la maison Pamphili, a 
construire le palais Pamphili, a creer la villa Pamphili, et a pamphiliser, 
tant qu'il put, les finances de I'eglise et de I'etat." — About, Rome Con- 
temporaiiie. 

There are two ways of returning to Rome from the Villa 
Doria — one, which descends straight into the valley to the 
Porta Cavalleggieri, passing on the left the Church of Sta. 
Maria delle Fornaci ; the other, skirting the walls of the 
city beneath the Villa Lante, which passes a Chapel, where 
St. Andrew's head, lost one day by the canons of St. Peter's, 
was miraculously re-discovered ! 



670 WALKS IN ROME. 

" On ne voit pas que de nouveaux monuments religieux se rapportent 
aux deux apparitions de Pyrrhus en Italic ; seulement les augures firent 
retablir le temple du dieu des foudres nocturnes, le dieu etruscosabin 
Summanus, en expiation sans doute de ce que la tete de la statue de 
Summanus, placee sur le temple de Jupiter Capitolin, avait ete detachee 
par la foudre, et, apres qu'on I'eut cherchee en vain, retrouvee dans le 
Tibre. 

" Je ne compare pas, mais j'ai vu le long des murs de Rome, antra la 
porta Cavalleggieri et la porte Saint Pancrace, une petite chapalle elevee 
au lieu ou Ton a retrouve la tete de Saint Andre apportee solennellemenl 
de Constantinople a Rome au quinzieme siecle et qui s'etait perdue.* 
•—Ampiret Hist. Rom. iii. 55. 



THE END. 



INDEX 



A. 

Accademia di S. Luca, 104 
Acqua — 

Acetosa, 642 

Alessandrina, 424 
Agger of Servius Tullius, 353 
Allia, river, 646 
Almo, river, 633 
Ara Coeli, 87 
Arches of — 

Constantine, 133 

DoJabella, 223 

Dnasus, 265 

Fabius (site of), 117 

Gallienus, 377 

Gordian (site of), 49 

Janus, 150 

Marcus Aurelius (site of), 35 

Septimius Severus — 

in the Foro Romano, 108 
in the Velabrum, 152 

Tiberius (site of), 108 

Titus, 129 
Arco — 

di S. Lazzaro, 622 

dei Pantani, 102 

Oscuro, 641 
Armilustrum, 249 
Aventine, the, 237 



B. 



Baptistery of the Lateran, 395 
Basilicas {pagan) — 

Emilia, 114 

Constantine, 116 

Julia, no 

Porcia, 115 



Basilicas {Christian) — 

S. Alessandro, 349 

S. Croce, 420 

S. John Lateran, 397 

S. Lorenzo, 426 

S. Maria Maggiore, 384 

S. Paolo, 629 

S. Pietro, 506 

S. Sebastiano, 287 

S. Stefano, 417 
Baths of— 

Agrippa, 483 

Caracalla, 613 

Constantine, 317 

Diocletian, 353 

Nero, 476 

Titus, 363 
Bocca della Verity, 153 
Borgo, the, 501 
Botanic Garden, 656 
Bridge of Caligula, 202 



C. 

Campo di Fiore, 456 
Vaccino, 117 
Campus Esquilinus, 35a 

Martius, 435 
Capitol, the, 61 
Carinas, the, 359 
Casale dei Pazzi, 349 
Casino di Papa Giulio, 640 
Castellan i, 40 
Castles of the— 

Alberteschi, 604 

S. Angelo, 495 - 

Anquillara, 612 
Catacombs of — 

SS. Abdon and Sennen, 668 



672 



INDEX. 



Catacombs of — conttnued, 

S. Agnese, 346 

S. Calepodius, 667 

S. Calixtus, 267 

S. Cyriaca, 433 

S. Felicitas, 339 

S. Felix, 17 

S. Generosa, 668 

S. Hippolytus, 434 

Jewish, 280 

SS. Nereo ed Achilleo, 281 

S. Nicomedus, 343 

SS. Pietro e Marcellino, 424 

S. Ponziano, 667 

S. Pretexiatus, 278 

S. Priscilla, 340 

SS. Quattro, 418 

SS. Thraso and Saturninus, 339 

S. Valentine, 640 
Cave of Cacus, 249 
Cemetery of S. Lorenzo, 432 
Cervaletto, 425 
Chapels of — 

S. Andrew's Head, 643 

S. Sylvestro, 231 
Churches — 

S. Adriano, 121 

S. Agata dei Goti, 320 

S. Agnese — Piazza Navona, 469 

S. Agnese — Fuori le Mura, 344 

S. Agostino, 442 

S. Alessio, 247 

S. Anastasia, 146 

S. Andrea delle Fratte, 36 

S. Andrea a Monte Cavallo, 308 

S. Andrea deila Valle, 462 

S. Angelo in Pescheria, 164 

S. Antonio Abbate, 382 

S. Apollinare, 444 

SS. Apostoli, 55 

Ara-Coeli, 87 

S. Atanasio, 21 

S. Balbina, 253 

S. Bartolomeo in Isola, 600 

S. Benedetto a Piscinuola, 603 

S. Bernardo, 358 

S. Bibiana, 379 

S. Brigitta. 454 

S. Buonaventura, 132 

S. Caio, 358 

S. Calisto, 617 

I Cappuccini, 330 

La Caravita, 43 

S. Carlo a Catinari, 462 

S. Carlo in Corso, 28 

S. Carlo a Quattro Fontane, 307 

S. Caterina Funari, 179 



Churches — cofi fin ued. 

S. Caterina da Siena, 318 

S. Cecilia, 605 

S. Celso in Banchi, 493 

S. Cesareo, 261 

S. Claudio, 37 

S. Clemente, 233 

S. Cosimato, 618 

SS. Cosmo e Damiano, 122 

S. Costanza, 345 

S. Crisogono, 613 

S. Crispino al Ponte, 604 

S. Croce in Gerusalemme, 420 

I Crociferi, 40 
S. Dionisio, 329 

SS. Domenico e Sisto, 320 

Domine quo Vadis, 267 

S. Dorothea, 618 

S. Eustachio, 477 

S. Francesca Romana,- 125 

S. Francesco di Paola, 370 

S. Francesco a Ripa, 61.1 

II Gesu, 59 

S. Giacomo degl' Incurabilf, 26 

S. Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, 473 

SS. Gesu e Maria, 26 

S. Giorgio in Velabro, 151 

S. Giovanni Decollato, 157 

dei Fiorentini, 494 
S. Giovanni alia Lungara, 656 
S. Giovanni a Porta Latina, 263 

in Olio, 263 
SS. Giovanni e Paolo, 221 
S. Girolamo degli Schiavoni, 25 
S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami, 97 
S. Gregorio, 215 
S. Ignazio, 44 
S. Isidoro, 333 
SS. Lorenzo e Damaso, 458 
S. Ix>renzo in Fonte, 325 
in Lucina, 34 
in Miranda, I2i 
fuori le Mura, 426 
Pane e Perna, 323 
S. Luigi dei P'raricesi, 474 
S. Marcello, 45 
S. Marco, 58 
S. Maria degli Angeli, 354 

deir Anima, 444 

in Aquiro, 39 

Aventina, 249 

Campitelli, 179 

in Cappella, 605 

in Cosmedin, 152 

in Domenica, 225 

Liberatrice, t2i 

di Loreto, 100 



INDEX. 



67: 



Churches — cont'm tied. 

S. Maria ad Marty res, 479 

sopra Minerva, 484 

di Monserrato, 452 

in Montecelli, 461 

in Monti, 322 

della Morte, 455 

del Orto, 611 

Pallara, 131 

del Popolo, ro 

Scala Coeli, 626 

Traspontina, 502 

in Trastevere, 614 

in Trivia, 40 

in Via, 37 

in Via Lata, 46 

di Vienna, icx) 

della Vittoria, 356 
S. Marta, 534 
S. Martina, 120 
S. Martino al Mojite, 371 
S. Michaele in Sassia, 536 
SS. Nereo ed Achilleo, 259 
S. Nicolo in Carcere, 158 
S. Nicolo in Tolentino, 333 
S. Onofrio, 653 
S. Onofrio in Campagna, 648 
S. Pancrazio, 667 
S. Pantaieone, 466 
S. Paolo, 629 

S. Paolo Primo Eremita, 329 
S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane, 627 
S. Pietro, 509 
S. Pietro in Montorio, 664 

in Vincoli, 364 
SS. Pietro e Marcellino, 415 
S. Prassede, 373 
S. Prisca, 251 
S. Pudentiana, 326 
SS. Quattro Incoronati, 231 
SS. Rocco e Martino, 25 
S. Sabina, 243 
S. Sabba, 252 
S. Salvatore in Lauro, 493 
S. Salvatore in Torrione, 535 
II Santissimo Redentore, 377 
S. Silvestro in Capite, 35 

a Monte Cavallo, 644 
S. Silvia, chapel of, 220 
S. Sisto, 261 
S. Stefano, 534 
S. Stefano Rotondo, 225 
S. Susanna, 357 
S. Teodoro, 145 
S. Teresa, 358 
S. Tommaso dei Cenci, 172 

in Formis, 224 



C h u rches — co7i tin ued. 

S. Tommaso degl' Inglesi, 452 
S. Trinita de' Monti, 19 

de' Pellegrini, 460 
S. Urbano, 284 
S. Venanzio, chapel of, 396 
SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio, 627 
S. Vitale, 329 
Circus — 

Agonalis, 473 
of Flora, 302 
of Maxentius, 291 
Maximus, 147 
Clivus Martis, 266 
Cloaca Maxima, 150 
Coliseum, 134 
Colleges of the — 
Propaganda, 24 
Romano, 46 
Sapienza, 476 
Colonna Duilia, 115 
Masnia, 107 
Colossus of Jupiter, 65 
of Nero, 129 
Columbarium, of the Arruntia, 381 

of the Freedmen of 
Augustus and Li- 
via, 267 
of the Freedmen of 

Octavia, 264 
of the Vigna Codini; 
264 
Columns of — 

Antoninus Pius, 576 
the Immaculate Conception, 23 
Marcus Aurelius, 37 
Phocas, 113 
Trajan, 99 
the Virgin, 458 
Comitium, the, 107 
Convents of — 

St. Anna, 618 
the Buon Pastore, 437 
S. Filippo Neri, 373 
the Minerva, 491 
the Monacche Polacche, 374 
the Pregatrici, 333 
the Sepolte-\'ive. 323 
the Tor de" Specchi, 180 
the Trinita, 19 
Corso, the, 25 
Costume Academy, 21 
, Crescenza, 644 

Crimera, the, 645 
I Cross of Henry IV., 38a 
Curia, the, 114 



674 



INDEX. 



E. 

Emporium, the, 622 
Esquiline, the, 358 
Etruscan Museum, 571 



F. 

Farnesina, 661 
Forum — 

Augustus, loi 

Boarium, 148 

Julius Caesar, 103 

Nerva, 102 

Romanum, 105 

Trajan, 98 
Fountains of — 

the Barcaccia, 23 

Egeria, 256 

Egeria (so called) , 284 

Paolina, 666 

the Tartarughe, 178 

the Termini, 356 

Trevi, 39 



G. 

* 

Gardens of — 
Adonis, 130 
Colonna, 317 
the Quirinal, 315 
the Priorato, 365 
Servilia, 240 
the Vatican, 576 

Ghetto, the, 165 

Grsecostasis, 107 

Grottoes of Cerbara, 425 



H. 

Horti Lamiani, 381 

Hospitals of — 
S. Galla, 157 
S. GaUicano, 613 
S. Michaele, 609 
S. Spirito, 503 
Bernini, 37 
Q. L>. Catulus, 202 

Houses of — 
Cicero, 203 
Claude Lorraine, 20 
Clodius, 202 
L. L. Crassus, 203 
M. L. Drusus, 203 



Houses o{— continued. 
the Fornarina, 603 
C. Cracchus, 201 
Hortensius, 206 
Luciezia Borgia, 371 
Mark Antony, 204 
N. Poussin, 20 
Raphael, 494 
Rienzi, 155 
the Violinista, 493 
the Zuccari, 20 



Inquisition, the, 534 
Intermontium, the, 66 
Isola Tiberina, 598 



J- 

Janiculan, the, 651 
Jewish Cemeteiy, 241 

Synagogue, 169 



K. 
Kircherian Museum, 45 



Lake of — 

Juturna, 110 
Servilius, 109 
Lateran, the, 397 
Leonine City, the, 501 
Loggie, the, 579 
Lunghezza, 425 
Lupercal, the, 194 



M. 

Maganaopoli, 318 
Mamertine Prisons, the, 93 
Maranna, the, 256 
Marmorata, the, 621 
Mausoleum of — 
Augustus, 26 
, Hadrian, 164 
Mentana, 349 
Meta Sudans, the, 13a 
Milliarium Aureum, 108 
Mons Sacer, 349 



IXDEX. 



675 



Monte Caprino, 66 

del Grano, 417 

Mario, 647 

de Pieta, 460 

Rotondo, 349 

Sacro (Mons Sacer), 348 

Te jtaccio, 625 
Mosaic Manufactory, 597 
Muro Torto, 14 
Museum of — 

the Capitol, 71 

Christian, of the Lateran, 412 

the Vatican, 549 

Egyptian, 575 

Etruscan, 571 



O. 

Obelisks of— 

the Lateran, 395 

S. Maria Maggiore, 393 

the Minerva, 483 

the Monte Cavallo, 309 

Monte Citorio, 38 

the Pantheon, 484 

S. Peter's, 504 

the Piazza della Minerva, 484 

the Piazza Navona, 471 

the Pincio, 15 

the Popolo, 8 

the Trinita, 18 



P. 

Palaces — 

Albani, 307 
Aldobrandini, 319 
Altemps, 444 
Altieri, 60 
of Augustus, 187 
Barberini, 302 
Bernini, 34 
Borghese, 28 
Braschi, 466 
Buonaparte, 57 
Caetani, 178 
Caffarelli, 85 
of Caligula, 197 
Cancelleria, 458 
Cenci, 171 
Cini, 38 
Chigi, 37 
Colonna, 53 
of the Conser\'ators, 80 
della Consulta, 310 



Palaces — cent in ued. 

Corsini, 656 

Costaguti, 178 

of Domitian, 210 

Doria, 49 

Falconieri, 456 

Farnese, 455 

Farnesina, 66i 

Fiano, 33 

Giraud, 502 

Govemo Vecchio, 448 

Lancelotti, 473 

Lateran (ancient), 405 
(modern), 409 

Linote, 458 

Madama, 473 

Margana, 180 

Massimo alle Colonne, 464 

Mattel, 178 

Monte Citorio, 38 

of Nero, 210 

Odescalchi, 53 

Orsini, 162 

Pamfili, 472 

Poli, 40 

Ponziani, 604 

Quirinale, 310 

Rospigliosi, 316 

Ruspoli, 33 

Sacchetti, 456 

Salviati, 53 

Salviati (alia Lungara , 656 

Santa Croce, 461 

Santo Uffizio, 534 

Savorelli, 56 

Sciarra, 41 

the Senator, 69 

Spada, 458 

Teodoli, 33 

of Tiberius, 195 

Torlonia, 57 

Valentini, 53 

of the Vatican, 537 

Venezia, 57 

Verospi, 33 

of Vespasian, 187 

Vidoni, 464 
Palatine, the, 182 
Pantheon, the, 478 
Paoline Chapel, 539 
Parco di San Gregorio, 215 
Pasquino, 466 
Pescheria, the, 164 
Piazzas — 

di Campitelli, 179 

dei Cappuccini, 330 

Colonna, 37 



676 



INDEX. 



Piazzas --confinyed. 

Gesu, 59 

Giudeca, 171 

Montanara, 159 

Monte Cavallo, 309 

Monte Citorio, 38 . 

della Navicella, 223 

Navona, 471 

Pia, 502 

di Pietra, 38 

del Popolo, 7 

Sciarra, 39 

Scossa-Cavalli, 502 

Scuola, 169 

SS. Apostoli, 53 

S. Eustachio, 477 

S. Giovanni, 395 

di Spagna, 22 

delle Tartarughe, 178 

Venezia, 57 
Pigna, the, 576 
Pincib, the, 12 
Piscina Publica, 262 
Ponte— 

S. Angelo, 495 

Cestio, 602 

Molle, 642 

Nomentana, 348 

di Nono, 425 

Quattro Capi, 597 

Rotto, 156 

Salara, 339 

Sisto, 619 

Sublicio, 156 
Porta— 

Angelica, 650 

Asinaria, 404 

Capena, 255 

Cavaleggieri, 535 

CoUina, 336 

Latina, 263 

Maggiore, 423 

Nomentana, 343 

Pia, 342 

Pinciana, 337 

Portese, 610 

Salara, 337 

Settimiana, 618, 664 

S. Giovanni, 404 

S. Lorenzo, 426 

S. Pancrazio, 667 

S. Paolo, 622 

S. Sebastiano, 265 

S. Spirito, 652 

Trigemina, 621 
Portico of Octavia, 163 

Pallas Minerva, 102 



Prata Quinctia, 24 
Prati del Popolo Romano, 625 
Pretorian Camp, 350 
Prima Porta, 644 
Priorato, the, 249 
Propaganda, the, 23 
Protestant Cemetery, 634 
Churches, 623 
Pyramid of Cains Cestius, 622 



Quirinal, the, 300 



Roma Quadrata, 185 

Vecchia, 295 
Rostra, the, 106 
Rustica, 426 



Santa Scala, 406 ^~^ 
Scannabecchi, the, 645 
School of Xanthus, 172 
Seminario Romano, 444 
Septizoniura of Severus, 210 
Sette Bassi, 417 
Sale, 364 
Sistine Chapel, 439 
Stanze, the, 581 
Studio of Overbeck , 358 
Suburra, the, 361 



Tabemae Argentariae, 114 • 

Tabularium, 70, 106 
Tarpeian Rock, 85 
Temples of — 

-iEsculapius, 600 

Antoninus and Faustina, 115 

Apollo, site of, 199 

Bacchus, so called, 283 

Castor and Pollux, 109 

Ceres, 152 

Ceres, Liber, and Libera, 148 

Concord, 107 

Cybele, site of, 198 

Diana, site of, 239 

Divus Rediculus, so called, 286 

Fides Publica, site of, 61 



INDEX. 



677 



Temples of- -continued. 

Fortuna Muliebris, site of, 418 

Virilis, 155 
Hercules, site of, 255 
fionour and Virtue, site of, 255 
)anus Quirinus, site of, 113 
Julius Caesar, site of, 115 
Juno Moneta, site of, 65 
Matuta, site of. 158 
Regina, site of, 239 
Sospita, Hope and Piety, 
158 
Jupiter Capitolinus, site of, 62 
Feretrius, site of, 65 
Stator, 185 
Tonans, site of, 65 
Victor, 193 
Liberty, site of, 239 
L-una, site of, 239 
Mars, site of, 255, 265 

Ultor, 100 
Mars and Venus Erycina, site of, 

65 

Minerva, site of, 240 

Minerva Medica, so called, 381 

Neptune, 38 

the Nymphs, site of, 213 

the Penates, site of, 116 

Peace, site of, 116 

Quirinus, site of, 301 

Saturn, 107 

the Sun, 317 

Tempestas, site of, 266 

Venus and Cupid, 423 

Venus and Rome, 132 

Vesta, site of, no 

Vesta, so called, 154 

Vespasian, 107 

Victory, site of, 197 
Theatres — {ancient) — 

Balbus, 171 

Marcellus, 161 

Pompey, 462 
Theatres {modern)—' 

Apollo, 493 

Capranica, 38 
TigeUum Sororis, 361 
Tombs of— 

the Baker Eurysaces, 423 

Caius-Cestius, 622 

Cecilia Metella, 291 

S. Constantia, 345 

Cotta, 296 

Geta, 266 

Horatii and Curiatii, 294 

Nero, site of, 8 

Nero, so called, 654 



Tombs oi~continucd. 

Priscilla, 266 

Romulus, son of Maxentius, 291 

S. Helena, 423 

the Scipios, 264 
Torre— 

degli Anicii, 599 

Babele, 319 

Capitolino, 71 

dei Conti, 364 

Frangipani, 370 

Marancia, 281 

Mellina, 469 

Mezza Strada, 295 

delle Milizie, 317 

di Nona, 493 

del Palatino, 201 

Pernice, 425 

Pignatarra, 424 

di Quinto, 644 

della Scimia, 441 

degli Schiavi, 424 

S. Lucia in Selce, 372 

di Selce, 296 

Tre Teste, 425 
Trastevere, the, 602 
Tre Fontane, 626 
Trophies of Marius, 379 



Umbilicus Romse, 108 



V. 

Valca, the, 645 
Val d' Inferno, 650 
Vatican, the, 537 
Via Ardeatina, 266 
Appia, 254, 292 
Babuino, 21 
Cassia, 646 
Condotti, 28 
dei Fienili, 176 
Flaminia, 644 
Giulia, 455 
Gregoriana, 20 
Latina, 417 
de Macao, 350 
di Marforio, 58 
Margutta, 21 
Nomentana, 343 
Nova, 207 
della Pedacchia, 67 
dei Pontefici, 26 



678 



INDEX. 



Via — contin ued. 

del Monte Tarpeio, 181 

Ripetta, 24 

Ripresa dei Barberi, 58 

Sacra, 132 

Salita del Grillo, 102 

Sistina, 20 

Tordinona, 493 

della Vite, 35 

Vittoria, 28 
Vicus Tuscus, no 

Jugarius, 109 
Vigna Codini, 264 

dei Jesuiti, 2t?i 
Villa— 

Albani, 337 

Altieri, 423 

Borghese, 635' 

Campana, 395 

Claude Lorraine, 641 

Esmeade, 640 

Lante, 667 

Lezzani, 343 

of Livia, 644 

Ludovisi, 334 



Villa — con tin ued. 

Madama, 646 

Massimo-Arsole, 415 

Massimo Negroni, 350 

Mattel, 224 

Medici, 17 

Mellini, 647 

Mills, 205 

Olgiati, 639 

Pamfili-Doria, 668 

Papa Giulio, 640 

Patrizi, 343 

Pia, 578 

Torlonia, 343 

Wolkonski, 41'* 
Viminal, the, 223 
Vulcanal, the, 106 



W. 

Walls of— 

Honorius, 242 
Romulus, 206 
Servius Tullius, 251 






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